What legal and professional requirements do I have to meet?

The specific legal and professional requirements you will need to meet will vary according to the type of therapy you practise. However, there are some requirements which will apply to any therapist regardless of the nature of their practice. You will need:

• to take out appropriate professional insurance
• to comply with the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act
• to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act
• to comply with any other relevant legislation
• to comply with client confidentiality
• to comply with financial and taxation legal requirements
• to comply with the membership requirements of any professional bodies of which you are a member.

Insurance

Most professional bodies will not list your practice in their directory or on their website unless you can prove that you have taken out adequate insurance to cover any professional and legal liabilities you may incur. Your clients are unlikely to ask you whether you are insured, but it is always good practice to confirm your insurance status in your practice brochure and in any fliers or leaflets you may distribute.

Whether you require any other insurances will depend on the work you are engaged in and where and how you practise. Many professional organisations offer blanket insurance cover as part of their membership fee. And most training schools and institutions effect their own insurance for students whilst they are training, and can offer good deals for graduate students who want to insure with the same company. If you practise more than one therapy you do need to insure that each therapy is adequately covered – if in doubt talk it through with your insurers.

Professional indemnity insurance

This is a must for any practising therapist, as it covers you for any legal action taken against you as a result of your work or your products. It is unlikely to be an expensive undertaking unless your therapy work has a high risk attached to it. A number of insurers offer low-cost policies which take into account all your professional risks and for a moderate increase in premium will include any other therapies that you practise under the one blanket policy.

Depending on the nature of your work you may have one or more endorsements attached to your policy. These are rarely very limiting, and normally only relate to activities outside the usual bounds for your particular therapy. For example, a Qi Gong practitioner may have an endorsement on their insurance policy which means that they are not covered for giving injections as part of their therapeutic work. This would not affect most Qi Gong practitioners and instructors as their work is non-invasive. However, you do need to check carefully any endorsements that are made to your policy in case these do relate to you and the way in which you work.

You should be thinking in terms of £2 million cover at least. If you are thinking of doing corporate work or hiring rooms for workshops or seminars, you might want to increase your cover to £5 million.

Public liability insurance

This covers your liabilities at law in respect of anyone who enters your premises as part of your work. For example, if one of your clients has the misfortune to trip over the edge of your carpet, falls and breaks their wrist and can’t work, they may decide to sue you for their loss of earnings this is the kind of accident that this insurance covers. You may think the likelihood of this happening is remote, hut you should insure for this just the same. If you work in rooms in a shared or managed building, the landlord’s public liability insurance will cover any accidents occurring in the common parts of the building such as the toilets or on the stairs, but you will need your own cover for your rooms or workspace.

Office contents insurance

It is not a professional requirement to insure your office contents, but you should give some thought to whether you could afford to replace all your equipment should the worst happen and you lose it all in a fire, or some of your equipment or furniture gets stolen. If you are working from home, you may well find that most of your equipment is already covered under your household contents policy. However, it is worth checking that any specialist equipment you may be using is also covered, and that the maximum limits on your insurance cover are adequate for both your household and business purposes.

If you are working from rented rooms you will need to take out your own office contents cover. This can be arranged with most insurance companies for a relatively small charge depending on the amount and type of equipment you have. Be prepared to answer questions about existing security precautions, as the insurers will be looking for confirmation that you have limited the risk of any theft by ensuring that windows are lockable, that access to the premises is secure and that there is a burglar alarm system in operation.

All risks insurance

This insurance is also not a professional requirement, but it is a sensible option if you and your equipment are often on the move. Even if you usually work from home, but take your laptop and mobile phone with you when you travel for training or to attend meetings, you should check whether those items are covered, and if not, how disruptive it would be to both your business and your finances to have to replace them. Again, check your household contents insurance policy first to see if you can separately list these items if they are not already covered elsewhere. Mobile phone companies often offer good insurance deals and it may be more cost effective to take out insurance with the phone company rather than increase the ‘all risks’ cover on your household policy.

If the other items you need to insure are not already included on your household policy and you have already taken out or intend to take out office contents insurance, it should be a simple matter to extend your cover and list the equipment you regularly transport on a schedule for ‘all risks’ cover.

Business interruption insurance

This insurance covers your costs should the worst case scenario happen, i.e. you lose all your equipment, case notes and practice room as a result of a tragic event such as a fire. If you haven’t given any thought to how you would operate should such a dire circumstance occur, it is always good to do a little planning for this even in your first year of trading. This insurance will cover your costs if you need to hire another room or office to work from while yours is being restored. It will also cover you for any liabilities you might incur regarding the loss of your data and the costs of retrieving or re-entering the data. Whether you decide to take out cover will depend on the nature and scale of your practice – but it’s a good exercise to think around this issue even if you decide not to take out specific cover.

Equipment breakdown insurance

If certain pieces of your equipment get very heavy usage, you may want to consider taking out the manufacturer’s breakdown insurance. Such items could include your computer or laptop, your printer/copier/scanner and your phone/fax machine – really any heavy-use items where the cost of insurance weighed against the likely cost of repair is favourable. This is particularly useful if you are working to a tight budget. Do bear in mind that you are likely to want to replace or upgrade your equipment every three to five years, so your calculations will need to take this into account – and you might find it helpful to add an extra 10 to 20% on to the original cost to allow for price increases or upgrading the equipment.

Employers liability insurance

You will not require this insurance unless you are employing others to work for you, but if you do employ others this insurance is a legal requirement. An employee is someone you have included on your payroll system and for whom you are liable as an employer for their safety and wellbeing. This therefore does not mean someone who is working in partnership with yourself, or any other self-employed therapist who may cover some of your work and to whom you may make payments, whether this relates to client referrals or to work they have done.

Disability Discrimination Act

From 1 October 2004 the Goods and Services Provision, Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 comes into force. This will affect any therapist who is working from premises which are not accessible by disabled people. Under this Act, access will also include access to toilets, car parking and information, and not just the ability to access your practice rooms.

If you take steps to make your service more accessible to people with disabilities, do bear in mind that you are not allowed to offset the costs of any alterations by charging a disabled client more for your services than you would anyone else. This also goes for home visits. If the only way you can provide access to your services to a disabled person is to work with them in their own home instead of your practice, you cannot charge extra for providing this service. For further information on the Disability Discrimination Act and the requirements regarding accessibility to premises, see Chapter 1.

As access also includes appropriate access to the information you provide, whether this is your practice brochure, leaflets or your website, you should ensure that you follow the guidelines for accessibility issues. See Chapter 12 for a list of useful contacts.

Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act 1998 requires therapists who keep computer-based client records to register with the Information Commissioner. Failure to register is a criminal offence. The Act requires the therapist to keep any personal data about individuals in a secure and confidential manner. It also allows a client the right to see the records which have been kept about them. For more information about keeping client records, see Chapter 6; and for contact details see Chapter 12. The current fee for registration is £35 (no VAT).

Sexually transmitted diseases, venereal and infectious diseases – the legal situation

There are special legal provisions relating to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, which relate to confidentiality and also to treatment. The situation is complex and the general advice is that if you are asked to treat anyone who has a sexually transmitted disease or infectious disease, and you are in doubt as to what the legal position is, you should take further legal advice.

The Venereal Diseases Act 1917 made it illegal to treat syphilis, gonorrhoea or soft chancre for payment. Therefore any services you provide should be free of charge.

You must also notify the Department of Health if you are aware that one of your clients is suffering from a notifiable disease (the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984 provides a full list of diseases which must be notified).

If one of your clients presents with an infectious disease they should not be permitted to come into contact with other people, instead you should persuade them to go and see their doctor. The Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations 1988 provides a full list of the diseases deemed to be infectious.

Treating children – the legal situation

The Children Act 1989 created the concept of parental responsibility. Parental responsibility lasts until a child reaches the age of 18, or marries before that age. The mother of a child always has parental responsibility for her child and the child’s biological father automatically has parental responsibility for the child if he is married to the child’s mother. If the child’s father is not married to the child’s mother, he can acquire parental responsibility by agreement with the mother or by court order. Guardians can also acquire parental responsibility by court order.

If you are treating a child under the age of 16 you will need to get consent for the treatment from whoever has parental responsibility for the child. Get them to sign a consent form an example is listed below – and keep a copy in your records.

Sample of a consent form

I (name of person with parental responsibility) give my consent for (name of therapist) to treat my child (name of child). I also give my consent for (name of therapist) to make any appropriate referrals.

Signed (parent or guardian)........................................	Date........................................
Signature of witness........................................	Date........................................

If you know that the parents are not providing the child with medical care, you should advise the person with parental responsibility to consult a doctor. If you agree to treat the child in the interim, you will also need to get the person with parental responsibility to sign a statement confirming that you have advised them to seek medical help for their child, and keep a copy of this statement in your records.

Sample of a warning statement

I (name of person with parental responsibility) have been advised by (name of therapist) that it is a legal requirement that I consult a doctor regarding the health of my child (name of child).

Signed (parent or guardian)........................................	Date........................................
Signature of witness........................................	Date........................................

A provision of the Children Act 1989 is the protection of children who are at risk of harm. Harm includes any form of ill treatment, such as emotional or physical neglect as well as direct physical or sexual abuse. If you suspect that a child brought for treatment is at risk, you should report this to the child’s doctor or the social services department serving the area in which the child lives. For this reason it is always advisable that when a child is brought for treatment, the person with parental responsibility for the child gives their consent for the child’s treatment and also consent for any appropriate referrals, so that should any issues arise, there is no additional problem of breaching confidentiality without consent.

Treating a woman in childbirth – the legal situation

No matter how much your particular therapy might benefit a mother-to-be, you should be aware that it is an offence for anyone other than a registered midwife to attend a woman in childbirth without medical supervision. It is also an offence for anyone other than a registered nurse to attend a woman who has recently given birth for a ten-day period after the birth.

So, whatever therapy you use, you will need to either teach your client the techniques she might find useful when in labour, provide tapes or CDs that she can listen to without the need for your personal involvement, issue any essential oils or herbal remedies that she might find useful in advance of childbirth, or treat any conditions, fears or problems well in advance of the expected delivery date.

Treating animals – the legal situation

The Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966

This Act prevents anyone who is not a registered veterinary surgeon from practising veterinary surgery. This includes diagnosing animal injuries and illnesses and giving advice on these. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) does accept the treatment of animals by some complementary therapies such as healing. See Chapter 12 for contact details.

Before you treat any animals, you must get the owner to confirm that the animal has already been examined by a vet. If not, a vet needs to make a proper assessment of the animal before any complementary treatments can be given. The animal’s vet remains in charge of the case at all times, and the therapist must not countermand or obstruct any treatment the animal is already receiving from the vet. The therapist is not allowed to suggest any form of diagnosis or advise on veterinary treatment. However, a therapist can administer first aid to an animal in an emergency.

Selling remedies, herbs and medicines – the legal situation

It is illegal for a therapist to prescribe or sell remedies, herbs, oils or any supplements unless they have had appropriate training or have a qualification which legally allows them to do so. The law regarding medicines, herbs and remedies is complex and is developing rapidly – anyone who wants to prescribe, administer or sell remedies needs to research, and comply with, the current legislation.