Foot Health Practitioner Register

What was the foot health practitioner register?

The foot health practitioner register was an accredited register of private sector foot health practitioners in the UK accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for health and social care and held by the Alliance. 

Members of the public can searched the register for an accredited foot health practitioner as well as read information on the practitioner such as their registration number and any disciplinary issues, this was to give ‘…. an informed choice when selecting a practitioner’ (The Alliance). 

When I spoke with the Dean and registrar of the Alliance, she stated that its ‘…for the protection of the public’.

Who could apply to be on the Accredited foot health practitioners register?

Any foot health practitioner who had an accredited Foot health practitioner Diploma at level 4 could have applied to join the register. 

The criteria of acceptance was to be a member of the Alliance which is a  membership organisation and professional body, and be insured by Balens (Balens Insurers cover professional indemnity and general liabilities). You see, the Alliance and Balens work together, So you needed both to be eligible to get on the register. Once on the register, the requirements were to complete a minimum of 40 CPD (Continued professional development) points a year to make sure you were up to date, with your skills, knowledge and performance. 

So lets say you have an accredited level 4 diploma with a reputable organisation, you have 40 CPD points under your belt, but your insured by someone else. Unfortunately, You still wouldn't have been put on the register. You would have needed to leave your current insurers and join Balans.

Was it mandatory to be on the accredited foot health register? No

Now ,there is another second Foot health practitioner register, which often pops up first on Google. This is held by Stonebridge College, also known as Learn Direct. Its not clear unless you delve into it. It is the register for Stonebridge ONLY qualified Foot health practitioners. It also has a search function for the public, but only yields results off Stonebridge College qualified Foot health practitioners. So bare that in mind.