Beauty therapists and nail technicians working within London’s Westminster no longer need to register with the council, and this has been the case since October 2012. The registration scheme was initially introduced to ensure that therapist providing treatments were properly trained and qualified but due to the length of time applications were taking to process the scheme has been scrapped.
On the official Westminster website the following statement was provided:
The council will no longer have a therapist registration scheme from the 1st October 2012. The responsibility for ensuring special treatment practitioners are sufficiently qualified and/or trained will be with the special treatment licensed premises operators.
A letter has been sent to all licensed special treatment premises licensees, registered therapists and applicants for registration that have not been determined to explain the reasons for the changes.
On the 20th September 2012 the Council amended the Special Treatment Premises Licence standard conditions effective from the 1st October 2012. This amendment will fully implement the cessation of the therapist scheme from that date. These amended Standard Conditions will apply to all licensed special treatment premises from that date. The Council has also agreed a guidance document to Special Treatment Premises Licence holders relating to the requirements of the amended Standard Conditions.
Although the announcement was published and circulated in advance to the change, 3 months in, it is apparent that many people in the industry are still unaware of the implications this has, particularly for employers in the area, who now will have the responsibility of ensuring that sufficient training is given to their members of staff.
Were you aware of this change? Do you think enough efforts in communicating the message were made? Has this change affected you in any way?
