Let’s make this very clear. There is no regulation or regulator for non-surgical aesthetics.

It’s fallen upon the industry to come up with an alternative solution to help protect consumers, and this is why the likes of GlowdayPRO and Save Face (among others) exist. GlowdayPRO is now the largest centralised register of non-surgical practitioners, with over 1000 practitioners registered, who have been assessed and accredited as being medically-qualified, trained and insured.

There are a number of sites for healthcare professionals only, and each has its own way of checking the credentials of the practitioners who list with them.

No De Facto Regulator

However, neither GlowdayPRO, Save Face or any of the others is a regulator. Practitioners are under no obligation to subscribe to any platform, nor is any platform able to to enforce any legal obligations.

We accredit the practitioners who join us, and most platforms are commercial businesses with no mandate from the Government.

Even the ‘not for profit’ registers such as the JCCP (which we expect to become the de facto approved regulator when licensing requirements are made law) are voluntary.

Some registers, such as Save Face, have been accredited by The Professional Standards Authority (the PSA), which, while is Government ‘approved’, is in itself only a voluntary register.

Why Isn’t GlowdayPRO PSA Accredited?

To be honest? At the moment (and we might change our minds one day!) we don’t think it’s worth it. It doesn’t help the consumer or provide GlowdayPRO with any value above and beyond what we do, nor do we believe it offers practitioners any real benefit beyond what we provide.

Yes, it would allow us to say GlowdayPRO is ‘Government Approved’ which would give patients and practitioners a sense of reassurance. But it’s a fallacy and misleading. GlowdayPRO would actually be ‘accredited by a Government approved register’ which is an entirely different thing, we wouldn’t actually be Government approved. It’s all smoke and mirrors. The PSA is Government approved, the organisations who are accredited by the PSA aren’t!

We’re also not convinced the accreditation is as thorough as it could be. For example, the PSA does not mandate that reviews must be verified - which essentially means we could allow practitioners to write their own reviews and publish them on Glowday, but, hey, it’s fine.. we’d be ‘Government approved’

We Don’t Regulate You

The only body you’re truly accountable to is the one who provides you with your medical pin, whether that’s the GMC, NMC, GDC or GPhC - they regulate your profession but they do not regulate the industry. These are the organisations who will pull you to account and whose guidelines, principles and rules you must adhere to and the only organisations with the power to suspend your or revoke your pin. They are your regulator, but they might not be someone else’s regulator.

GlowdayPRO of course has its own terms and conditions and you must prove your qualifications, training and medical registration. We have our own principles, guidelines and stipulations and your membership with us is reliant on your adherence to these. We will of course remove anybody who doesn’t meet our standards and/or report, where necessary, to the relevant statutory body.

But we are not a regulator. No organisation is. We will never tell consumers that we regulate our practitioners or give you a sticker for your door saying you are regulated by GlowdayPRO. You are not. You are vetted and verified and approved by GlowdayPRO, but you aren’t regulated by us - or anyone else. It’s misleading to give patients the impression that you are. It gives them a false sense of security that they could complain to us and we’d be able to stop you practising. In reality we’d only be able to remove you from our platform - the same as any other register.

Are There No Consequences?

You absolutely should be proud you’ve been verified by GlowdayPRO and have made the cut. It is a stamp of approval. It does give you credibility, it does give your patients reassurance that an independent organisation has endorsed you.

If we find you’ve done something that conflicts with our terms and conditions or behaving without propriety, as we said above, we’ll kick you off the platform. If it’s serious and a patient’s wellbeing is at risk, we will report it to the relevant medical body. But that’s where our jurisdiction ends.

What we’re saying, really, is that while you should absolutely take your responsibilities seriously and honour your GlowdayPRO verification you don’t need to FEAR us, nor should any platform intimidate you.

It's A Partnership

We’re on your side. We’re a team. We’re not some scary pseudo ‘regulator’ whom dictates how you should run your business. You’re not accountable to us beyond our terms and conditions (and remember this is true for any voluntary register - you’re not regulated by them).

We do take membership seriously, we do thoroughly check who joins, we do need evidence of training and qualifications and we will review these every year. We will listen to patients who complain and we will suspend practitioners from our platform, to ensure we protect our - and every other practitioner’s - reputation and credibility.

But, we are passionate about what you do, we love what you do! That’s why you won’t see us pumping out lots of stories about ‘botched jobs’ or focussing too much on the negative aspects of the industry. We want to celebrate and promote non-surgical aesthetic treatments, we don’t want to put patients off having treatments, we want to encourage them to pursue the incredible options that are available to them.

Yes, we have a big job to do in educating consumers why it’s crucial they see a medic for their Botox and lip fillers, but we know we can do this in a positive and productive way.

Giving You Extra

Of course, when you join GlowdayPRO you’re not paying a huge annual fee just to get a stamp of approval and a sticker for your clinic’s window from a business that most members of the public have never heard of.

You’re joining a platform that consumers love (Glowday is the biggest aesthetics website in the UK!) and a heap of features and tools that enable you to run your clinic and manage your patients including online booking, facial markup, digital forms, payment processing - as well as a gorgeous profile and a mechanism to attract new patients.

The Future

Of course, licensing is coming. Exactly how that will look at the moment, we don’t know. Almost certainly it will not restrict non-surgical aesthetic treatments to medics/health care practitioners only. We don't think that will ever happen. It will though probably be as close as we're going to get to professionalising the industry and clearing some of it up. We strongly urge you to participate in the consultation process and we'll share details of how you can do this when they're published.

If you've already been considering CQC registration or Level 7 training, now might be a good time to scope these options out more seriously. If we had to hedge our bets, these will be the things that will give you a head start for licensing requirements.

In the meantime, you’re not regulated, nobody regulates you and if you’re telling your patients you are, it might be advisable to reframe the terminology you’re using so not to mislead trusting consumers. Lastly, don’t be afraid of us, we’re not here to intimidate you or ‘monitor’ what you do - you’re a medically qualified pro, you’re already accountable to your profession. You’re one of us, part of the gang and we’re here to support you and to make your life easier.

We’ve got you!