Check practitioners before they treat in your clinic

These checks apply if you employ practitioners in your clinic or let rooms to self-employed practitioners. Physiotherapists, podiatrists, osteopaths and chiropractors each sit on a different statutory register. If you practise alone, the same register and indemnity rules apply to you.

Your clinic can be exposed if someone treats patients under a title they are not entitled to use. Do these checks before the practitioner's first patient.

Work out which register applies

Each profession has its own protected titles. The table shows who may use each title, the offence and the maximum penalty.

The Osteopaths Act 1993 and the Chiropractors Act 1994 do not require intent to deceive. Anyone who describes themselves as an osteopath or chiropractor without being registered commits an offence.

Check the register entry

Check each practitioner on their regulator's public register before they start work or take a room. Search by the registration number they give you and make sure the name and profession match. Note the date you checked.

If the entry does not match what the practitioner told you, do not let them treat patients under that title until the difference is explained. Repeat the check from time to time, because a registration can change after you first look.

Confirm indemnity cover

Every practising registrant must hold indemnity cover. For physiotherapists and podiatrists the duty is in article 11A of the Health Professions Order 2001. For osteopaths and chiropractors it is in section 37 of their Acts.

For HCPC registrants, employer cover can be enough for employed work where it covers the registrant's scope of practice. Check that your policy covers the work of each practitioner you employ. Osteopaths and chiropractors must hold at least the minimum in the table, so check that any policy you hold on their behalf meets it.

A self-employed practitioner who rents a room from you arranges their own cover. Ask to see it before they start. If you employ anyone, you also need employers' liability insurance. For these policies, see Professional indemnity insurance and Employers' liability insurance.

Request DBS checks

Healthcare for an adult is regulated activity when a regulated health care professional provides it, or someone acts under their direction or supervision. Physiotherapists, podiatrists, osteopaths and chiropractors are regulated health care professionals. Healthcare for a child is also regulated activity, and there is no frequency test: a single treatment counts.

Anyone you employ to do this work is eligible for an enhanced DBS check that includes the barred list for the group they treat. It is an offence to let someone do regulated activity when you know, or have reason to believe, that they are barred from it. For adults, work done outside the direction or supervision of a registered practitioner is not regulated activity.

Ask for the check before the first treatment. For check levels, fees and how to apply, see DBS checks for employers.

A practitioner who rents a room from you is self-employed, so you do not employ them. Whether you can request the check yourself depends on whether you engage them to provide treatment. If you are unsure, ask the DBS before you agree the arrangement, and record in the room agreement who is responsible.

If you let rooms

Who registers when you let rooms to another provider is explained in Physiotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic clinic registration

Your room agreement can require the practitioner to show you their registration number, indemnity cover and DBS certificate before they start, and to tell you if any of them changes. Whether a practitioner is genuinely self-employed depends on how you work together. For the test, see Employment status determination.

Unregistered roles

Sports massage therapists, sports therapists and massage therapists have no statutory register. They cannot use any protected title, so describe the role by its own name on your website, rota and invoices.

Treatment by unregistered staff can be treated differently for VAT, as explained in VAT on physiotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic treatment. In a London borough that licenses special treatments, massage by unregistered staff can also need a licence. See Nails and massage licences from your council

What to do next

Once your practitioners are checked, make sure your advertising names them correctly. Read Advertise a physiotherapy, osteopathy or chiropractic clinic. If you are taking on your first employee, read the first employee checklist. For patient records, see Data protection for healthcare providers.