It is advisable to have your qualifications accredited in the UK. A professional association can do this for you - see a list of member professional associations in "Work of the Council". The professional associations will also be able to help you to arrange insurance if you become a member. Some areas in the UK require that you have a licence to practice massage there. Check with the local authorities of the area in which you plan to work, if this will apply to you. (If you have qualified in a non-English speaking country you are likely to be required to have your documents translated into English. )

In the UK, because of Common Law people can really do what they want. They can set up as massage therapists (or anything else) and it is only when people complain to the Trading Standards that anything can be done. This does not enhance our profession at all!

We want people to recognise the invaluable role Massage Therapy plays in Healthcare so as such we are prepared to show that we are properly trained, continually improve our skills and are fit to practise.

Through the GCMT, the public can have confidence in the practitioners that are listed there. This improves the all over safety of each client.

General Practitioners have been reticent in promoting practitioners as they don’t know enough about the training or the therapies. Many pracatitioners have loads of letters after their name which really mean very little. With a proper register, clarification of training means that the medical professions can refer with confidence.

This is an opportunity to become involved in the regulation process, to help in the transition to making Massage Therapy have a far better profile and hopefully be more accessible through the NHS and insurance bodies. Your contribution will be well spent on the expenses involved in the funding of all the work which has been done voluntarily.

The Register is on line and is available to the public to access so this will hopefully increase your clientele.

We also need to know the number of Massage Practitioners who are going to join our ranks so we can decide on membership fees for the regulatory register.

The Core Curriculum is available on this website. You have hopefully trained to this level, which has been mapped to the NOS.

If you have trained elsewhere or have any queries, then joining one of the member bodies is the way to go. They will screen what you have done and advise you accordingly. You may be asked to demonstrate that you are at the level required.

We hope the transition will be easy. If you are now on the current Register, it should mean that you can go on the final one but we cannot say for sure until we are told exactly what is happening.

Regulation of a profession means a variety of things.

Firstly, a regulated profession has a clear set of standards for education and training which must be met for a practitioner to be able to claim to be part of the profession. This ensures that they have the necessary training to deliver safe and competent practice.

Secondly, they must adhere to a common Code of Conduct, that anyone who receives their services can expect them to comply with.

Thirdly, the profession must have a system to deal with complaints or allegations against a member of the profession. If a professional is not practicing safely or breaches a Code of Conduct, action is taken by a regulatory body established to investigate complaints and take action necessary to protect the public.

In the case of Massage Therapy, the General Council for Massage Therapy has been established to carry out all of these regulatory functions.

Regulation is good for both the public and the profession.

The public can be assured that the Massage Therapist providing services has been trained to a level which allows them to practice safely and competently.

However, in the rare case that something goes wrong, there is a Code of Conduct which defines the standards expected of the Massage Therapist and a process for investigating complaints.

It is also in the interest of the profession to have a system of regulation. The setting of standards for training and practice means that a clear professional identity is developed. While practitioners may deliver services in different ways the core principles which define the profession are its strength. No-one having obtained inadequate or insufficient training can then call themselves a member of the profession when everyone else has spent many months or years training to an agreed standard of competence.

The regulation of the profession also means that practitioners can promote themselves to the public as being safe – by virtue of them being regulated by an independent regulator.