How to Check Who Is Treating You: GMC, NMC, JCCP and Save Face

You can check who is treating you in about two minutes, and it is worth doing before any injectable treatment. In England there is no law saying who may inject dermal filler into an adult’s face, and “aesthetic practitioner” is not a protected title. The registers are how you tell a regulated clinician from someone who has completed a weekend course. This article explains which register to use for which person, what Save Face and the JCCP each check, and what to ask any clinic before you book.

Who is allowed to give injectable treatments in the UK?

Anti-wrinkle injections are a prescription-only medicine. They can only be prescribed by a doctor, dentist, pharmacist or nurse who holds a prescribing qualification, after an in-person consultation with you. Dermal fillers are different. They are not a prescription-only medicine, and the NHS notes that they “do not always need a prescription”, so in England a person with no healthcare training can legally inject filler into an adult.

Two rules apply to everyone. Nobody may give anti-wrinkle injections or cosmetic filler to anyone under 18 in England: the Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Act 2021 made it an offence from 1st October 2021, with or without a parent’s consent. And since 1st June 2025, the Nursing and Midwifery Council has required nurse prescribers to consult face to face before prescribing for a cosmetic procedure. If you will never meet the person prescribing, treat that as a reason not to book.

The person who injects you does not have to be the person who prescribed. The NHS guidance says: “the prescriber must ensure that the person giving you the injections is trained and safe to do so.” So it is worth checking both people.

Statutory registers and accredited registers

There are two kinds of register, and they do different jobs.

Statutory registers are set up in law. A doctor must be on the General Medical Council (GMC) register to practise, a nurse on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register, a dentist on the General Dental Council (GDC) register and a pharmacist on the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) register. If the regulator removes someone, they can no longer practise that profession. These registers tell you the person is who they say they are and is fit to practise their profession. They do not tell you how much aesthetic training the person has.

Accredited registers are voluntary. The Professional Standards Authority, which oversees the statutory regulators, also accredits registers “of health and care practitioners not regulated by law”. Two cover aesthetics: Save Face and the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners (JCCP). Joining is a choice, and it means someone outside the clinic has looked at how it works.

Neither kind guarantees a good result. Together they tell you whether the person treating you answers to anyone other than themselves.

How to check a doctor, nurse, dentist or pharmacist

Ask for the person’s full name and registration number, then look them up yourself. Do not rely on a certificate on the wall or a number printed on a website.

1. Doctors: search the GMC register by name or GMC number. Check they hold a licence to practise, and read any conditions or warnings on the entry. Rely on the register entry itself, because a title on a website or a certificate on the wall can say anything.
2. Nurses: search the NMC register. You need more than a first name. If a nurse tells you they prescribe, their entry should show a prescribing qualification. The NMC says a nurse “may only prescribe once their prescribing qualification has been annotated on the NMC register”, so completing a prescribing course is not enough on its own.
3. Dentists: search the GDC register.
4. Pharmacists: search the GPhC register and look for the independent prescriber annotation.

If the name you are given does not appear, or the clinic will not give you one, treat that as a warning.

What Save Face checks

Save Face is a register for registered healthcare professionals only: doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives and prescribing pharmacists. A beauty therapist or a non-medical practitioner cannot join, however experienced they are.

Before accrediting a clinic, Save Face asks for each practitioner’s training certificates, insurance and basic life support certificate, and the clinic’s written protocols and procedures. A Save Face nurse assessor then reviews, by video call, how treatments are set up, how medicines are stored and managed, the lighting, and how the clinic handles consent and aftercare. Save Face says its assessment runs to 116 points, covering “qualifications, insurance, training, product sourcing, infection control, premises, consent, and complaints handling”. Accreditation is renewed every year, and patients can leave reviews on the register.

To check a clinic or practitioner, search the Save Face register by town and treatment.

Save Face sits alongside the statutory register and does not replace it, so check the GMC or NMC entry as well. The Professional Standards Authority has also set conditions on Save Face’s accreditation, including one asking it to make each registrant’s statutory status easier for the public to confirm. Using both checks covers that gap.

What the JCCP register covers

The JCCP Practitioner Register is open to both healthcare professionals and practitioners without a healthcare registration, such as aesthetic practitioners from a beauty therapy background, working at Level 4 and above. That makes it the register for many of the people who give skin, laser and non-injectable treatments.

For practitioners without a healthcare registration, the JCCP is explicit about the limit. It registers them only for lower-risk procedures, “those aesthetic procedures that do not involve the injection of toxins, the insertion of dermal fillers or the use of more invasive lasers”. So a JCCP registration on its own does not mean someone is qualified to inject you.

You can search the JCCP register by name.

Save Face and the JCCP: what each register checks

The two registers cover different people. A clinic that offers both injectables and skin treatments may reasonably have clinicians on both.

What is changing in England

The Health and Care Act 2022 gave the government the power to license non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England. In August 2025 the Department of Health and Social Care published its plans. The highest-risk procedures, including filler injected into the breasts, buttocks and genitals, will be restricted to qualified healthcare professionals working for providers registered with the Care Quality Commission. Anti-wrinkle injections and filler in the face and lips are planned to come under a new local authority licensing scheme.

None of this is in force yet, and no start date has been set. Until it is, the registers above are how you check.

The two-minute checklist

Ask these before you book injectables anywhere, here or elsewhere. A well-run clinic will answer every one without hesitation.

1. Who will inject me, and what is their registration number? Look it up on the GMC, NMC, GDC or GPhC register before the appointment.
2. Who prescribes, and will I meet them in person first? For anti-wrinkle injections, the answer should be a named prescriber and a face-to-face consultation.
3. Is the clinic or the practitioner on a register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority? For injectables, that means Save Face or the JCCP’s healthcare register. Check the listing yourself.
4. What product will you use, and where does it come from? Ask to see the packaging before it is opened.
5. What happens if something goes wrong, and who do I call that evening? Ask how the clinic would manage a complication such as a vascular occlusion, whether the medicine that dissolves filler is kept on site, and who answers outside opening hours.
6. Will I have time to think before treatment? If you are pressed to decide on the day, or offered a discount for booking now, take that as a reason to wait.

Where The London Road Clinic stands

We are a doctor-led clinic in Newark, and every check in this article works on us.

• Dr Shahe Boghossian is our Medical Consultant, registered with the GMC (No. 5204600). He leads clinical governance and prescribing, and every prescription treatment at the clinic follows an in-person consultation with a prescribing clinician.
• Melanie Van Wellen is our Aesthetic Nurse, registered with the NMC (PIN 13E2603E).
• Lydia Griffin, our Clinic Director, has over 20 years’ experience in aesthetics and is on the JCCP Practitioner Register (No. 002569).

The clinic is accredited by Save Face, and Dr Shahe and Mel are both on the Save Face register. Our assessment was carried out by a Save Face nurse assessor by video call, and it is renewed every year. You can read what Save Face checked on our clinical standards page, and see our listing on the Save Face register.

We see patients from across Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. If you are comparing clinics, do the checks above on us and on everyone else.

Frequently asked questions