National Occupational Standards NOS updates

As part of our ongoing commitment to standards that are meaningful, we are currently adapting to the latest revisions of the NOS (National Occupational Standards) for the Complementary health field. National Occupational Standards are guidelines of good practice, and although there is no legal requirement to follow them, if you don't and something goes wrong then you have real explaining to do in court, or regarding an insurance claim / malpractice claim. Therefore it is common sense to follow them, because then you have the knowledge that you are doing things "by the book".

One of the more annoying features of NOS is the tendency for updates to pop up every 6 months or so, often with little fanfare, so you often need to to be checking the quango sites to find out if there is any change.

The latest massive revision of NOS is actually a very positive move. The standards have been simplified so that there are simplified standards for "explore and establish the client's needs" and "develop and agree plans". These two main standards: CNH1 and CNH2 are common for all complementary therapies, rather than having different bits and pieces for each therapy. Further standards then apply for each therapy method, and the Healing NOS are often used for any therapy that has not yet got standards written for them.

Having reviewed CNH1 and CNH2 today for a training course I am running this coming weekend, I am fully confident that we adhere to these for all therapies provided. Since all the standards have been simplified, and since we adhered to all the older complex standards, I am also confident we adhere to all the appropriate sub standards for individual therapies. I will be reviewing and checking this over the coming weeks, Nutrition and Healing NOS having already been checked for all the integrative work that we do. We have also recently checked the psychological therapies NOS and found we match them well. Just Reiki, Herbalism, Kinesiology and Hypnotherapy revisions to check :)

Overall it is a massive improvement to see such well simplified standards!

Incidentally if any students / therapists are reading this blog - to access the Skillsforhealth NOS you now need to sign up (free) at their website and get a login. You can then access the competence search tool. Without that it is tricky to access each competence, unless you know the exact document url.