The CNHC has sought legal advice on whether the complementary healthcare practitioners listed on their register are included in the businesses permitted to remain open during the national restrictions in England introduced by the Government. Here is the overview we received from them. NOTE: Please be sure to read the updates in red, which give the latest information we have.

What does this mean for NACHP Members who are CNHC Registrants?
Our Members who are CNHC Registrants can continue to provide the therapies they are registered for, on a one-to-one basis, for an identified mental or physical health condition or injury that is causing them pain or having an adverse impact on their mobility or their quality of life. You must be able to evidence that your therapeutic intervention is supporting your client with their condition. You can do this by recording their health condition and giving a clear rationale in your client’s care record for the treatment that you are providing.

Mobile working
You cannot provide treatment to a client in their own home unless you have received a direct referral from a statutory regulated health professional.

If your practice is based in your home
Most of our Members base their practice in their own home. You can continue to work from there as long as it is COVID-secure. You must follow our advice on following government guidance on working safely contained in this document.

Scotland (Updated 1 November 2020)

A new system of local protection levels has been introduced from 2 November 2020. You can check the protection level for your area and find out what you can and cannot do under each level here.

You can also use this postcode checker to find out which tier of protection applies to you.

Northern Ireland (updated 19 October)

The First Minister outlined the Northern Ireland Executive’s decisions to the Assembly on 14 October 2020. The restrictions, which will come into force on Friday 16 October for an initial period of 4 weeks, include: “Closure of close contact services apart from those meeting essential health needs which will be defined in the regulations to ensure continuation of essential health interventions and therapeutics. This will not include complementary treatments.”

All CNHC Registrants with practices in Northern must stop working from 6pm on 16 October for the next 4 weeks. Updated guidance can be found here.

Wales (updated 9 November2020)

The fire-break measures introduced on 23 October 2020 ended on Monday 9 November 2020. It has been replaced by new national restrictions. CNHC Registrants providing close-contact services (i.e. working ‘hands-on’ where social distancing is not possible) can return to work under these new restrictions.

Based on the advice they have received, Registrants in England meet the definition  of  “other…health services, including services relating to mental health” contained in Section 47, Part 3 of the Schedule to The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020 and can therefore continue to practise.

This legal advice has taken into account that in Section 25E of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 practitioners on Accredited Registers are defined as engaged in work that includes the provision of healthcare.

You can download a full copy of the Government’s Schedule from our NACHP website here.