Professional Standards & Scope of Practice
As an HCPC registered practitioner, your scope of practice is the limit of your knowledge, skills and experience.
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The HCPC does not define or specify areas of practice for the professions they regulate.
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This approach is similar to that of NMC's. It allows registrants the flexibility to move into new or emerging fields, including aesthetics, provided that the professional can demonstrate that they are practicing safely and effectively.
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Due to this approach, the HCPC does not produce a set list of procedures or specialisms that fall within the scope of practice for each profession.
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The HCPs stance is in line with the NMC. See below for more information on this.
A comparison between the HCPC and NMC stance on aesthetics.
The HCPC does not limit or define scope of practice, but requires registrants to practice safely and effectively within their competence (HCPC Standards of Proficiency). Registrants must undertake additional training to expand into new areas, and exercise personal judgment to ensure lawful practice (Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics, Standard 3). Scope of practice is defined as "the limit of your knowledge, skills and experience," encompassing activities within the professional role, which can include aesthetics for professions like radiographers, paramedics, physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists and ODPs, when appropriately trained.
The HCPC website does not explicitly state that it's registrants are permitted to practice aesthetics. The HCPC stance is that registrants are permitted to decide what is within their own scope.
The NMC does not rigidly define aesthetics as within or outside a nurse's scope. Instead, the NMC Code (2018, updated 2024) and Standards of Proficiency for Registered Nurses (2018) require nurses to work only within their competence, undertaking additional training for new roles (e.g., aesthetic procedures). Nurses must ensure they have the knowledge and skills for safe practice (NMC Code, Section 6.2) and deliver evidence-based care (Standards, Platform 4).
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The Code does not state that aesthetics is/is not within a nurses scope of practice. It is left open to interpretation, much like the HCPC stance.​​
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The NMC website does not explicitly state that its registrants are permitted to practice aesthetics. The NMC allows registrants to define what it within their own scope.
Where lies the differences between nurses and AHPs working in aesthetics:
Both the HCPC and NMC stance on aesthetics is ambiguous and lacks clarity.
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Both the HCPC and NMC stance is that their registrants are able to define their own scope of practice.
However, nurses benefit from the fact the RCN have a webpage dedicated to guidance for nurses aesthetics.
The AHPA call for the following AHP professional bodies to take inspiration from the above page and clearly announce that their registrants are permitted to work in aesthetics.:
The Society of Radiographers
The College of Paramedics
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
The British Association of Occupational Therapists
College of Operating Department Practitioners
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In doing so, it will clarify and solidify AHPs place in the aesthetics industry.
