Consent, records and compliance
What you have to record, how long to keep it, and what happens when somebody asks to see it.
Compliance in aesthetics is mostly record keeping, and record keeping is mostly a habit rather than a project. The obligations come from three directions at once: data protection law, because client health information is special-category data; your indemnity policy, which almost always requires contemporaneous records including signed consent; and the regulators, whose expectations are tightening as the UK moves towards a licensing scheme.
These guides cover what each of those actually asks of you, in the order a practitioner meets them. Regulatory claims are sourced to the primary regulator and carry the date they were checked, because this is an area that moves.
Every guide on this topic
Save Face and the JCCP: what UK aesthetic accreditation actually means
Save Face and the JCCP are voluntary UK registers rather than statutory regulators. Both assess training, insurance, premises and record keeping, and both exist because non-surgical aesthetics is still largely unregulated. Accreditation signals credibility to clients and insurers, but it does not replace the licensing scheme still being developed.
Read the guideBotox Consent Form: What to Include and Why It Protects You
A botox consent form must name the product and record that botulinum toxin is a prescription-only medicine used off-label for cosmetic purposes, set out the risks including ptosis and asymmetry, capture health history and contraindications, confirm alternatives were discussed, and carry a dated signature from client and practitioner.
Read the guideAesthetic Practitioner Insurance: What Cover You Actually Need
Aesthetic practitioner insurance normally bundles medical malpractice, public liability, product liability and professional indemnity. The premium is driven mainly by the treatments you perform, and published starting figures run from about £478 a year for toxin and filler work. Policies are claims-made, so the retroactive date matters when you switch insurer.
Read the guideGDPR Consent Form Template UK: What Aesthetic Clinics Need
Consent is usually the wrong lawful basis for treating clients: contract and legitimate interests generally fit better, with a separate Article 9 condition for health data. Your form needs to identify the controller, state what you hold and why, give a retention period, and treat clinical photography as its own permission.
Read the guideWhy paper consent forms are holding your aesthetic clinic back
Paper consent forms cost time at every appointment, cannot be searched, and are difficult to produce when an insurer asks for them. They also sit awkwardly with UK GDPR obligations for securing and retaining special-category health data. Digital consent gives you a timestamp, an audit trail and a form that sends itself.
Read the guideDigital consent forms for aesthetic treatments: what must be included
A valid aesthetic consent form must name the specific treatment, set out the risks and side effects, record the alternatives and the option to decline, capture the client's health history, and carry a dated signature. Digital consent adds a timestamp and an audit trail that a paper form in a drawer cannot.
Read the guideWhat to include in aesthetic treatment notes (and why it protects you)
An aesthetic treatment note should record the date, the practitioner, the product with its batch number and expiry, the dose and injection sites, the consent obtained, any complications, and the aftercare given. Add before and after photographs and an anatomical diagram. Together these are what make a claim defensible.
Read the guideClient records for solo aesthetic practitioners: what to keep and why
A solo aesthetic practitioner needs to keep a health history, a signed consent form, a contemporaneous treatment note recording product, batch, dose and injection sites, and before and after photographs. Client health information is special-category data under UK GDPR, so it also needs secure storage and a stated retention period.
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