On 9 December 2014 the Health Education England (HEE) held a stakeholder consultation to discuss the qualification requirements, information on how different groups of practitioners will be able to meet these requirements, options for accreditation and recognition of qualifications and standards for practice. The meeting was attended by a diverse group of parties – from industry as well as the specialty. There were many presentations with, unfortunately, limited time to discuss the proposals in full. The main thrust is an approach to the non-surgical practitioners to be stratified into levels of practice (Level 4 – 8) with specific competencies defined for each level. How these levels will be assessed and accredited has yet to be clarified. There is still a lack of formal training for the specialty and how and who will lead on this is not clear. We will have a more indepth feature on this. In the meantime, the consultation process runs for a month between 9 December 2014 and 9 January 2015. I would strongly urge all readers to look through the document and send their comments to the HEE.
(To receive a copy of the consultation document contact cosmetics@nwl.hee.nhs.uk)
