The training organisation that developed the first Ofqual-recognised qualifications for medic and non-medic practitioners has welcomed a report by MPs into the standard of training in the sector.
a-training, which developed the Level 5 and Level 7 Certificates in Aesthetic Practice in 2019, welcomed the recommendations by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Beauty, Aesthetics and Wellbeing (the APPG) after its year-long inquiry into professional and training standards.
The APPG investigated areas of concern such as practitioner training and qualifications, industry registration and licensing, mental health issues, advertising, social media and ethics. It took evidence from across the industry, including from a-training Clinic Director Chris Wade, and Chief Operating Office Jackie Holian.
The APPG made 17 key recommendations to ‘plug the regulatory gap’, including setting national minimum standards for practitioner training, ensuring practitioners hold a regulated qualification, and the prospect of a national licensing framework.
Other recommendations include making fillers prescription only, developing and mandating psychological pre-screening of customers, extending the ban on under-18s receiving botox and fillers to other invasive aesthetic treatments, and curbing misleading adverts on social media.
Chris Wade, a-training Clinic Director, who recently appeared as an industry expert on the BBC documentary Under the Skin: The Botched Beauty Business, said, ‘a-training was the first training organisation from the aesthetics sector to engage with the APPG, and to have representation on its panel. We are extremely satisfied that we have been able to feed into its inquiry and that their recommendations are in-line with what we have been campaigning for for years. We know that for the time being these are just recommendations, but we will be campaigning to see them turned into laws so that we can ensure that high standards become the norm throughout the non-medic aesthetics industry, and that it becomes respected for its high levels of professionalism’.
To read the full report and recommendations from the APPG, go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57895186
