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High Level Support For Our Members
Benefits of being part of ARA
Proactive and Dynamic Support
- ARA (under BAF) gained agreement to remove the waiting time for Blood Transfusion.
- We were the only groups allowed to work during the first lockdown.
- Legal Support & Documentation.
- Guidance for treating vulnerable patients.
- Guidance for treating minors.
- Alliances for training in Early Skin Cancer Detection.
- Support in improving patient outcomes.
- Your clinic listed on our “Acupuncture Near Me” map.
Professional Status and Recognition
- ARA has secured your members’ acceptance as healthcare professionals with PHE.
- Parliamentary support via our direct links as well as via our agreement with Unison healthcare trade union.
- Access to our members’ area for useful tools and information.
- Have a direct voice to the ARA board via your member representative.
- ARA brings all styles together forwarding your status and Acupuncture as a whole.
community and supplier discounts
- Access our specially designed and discounted ARA Affinity Insurance Scheme.
- Discounted seminars, meetings, and workshops for your practitioners.
- We have negotiated the cheapest non-contract sharps disposal service available.
- London Boroughs Special Treatment Exempted Status.
Acupuncture Regulatory Authority welcomes new Membership Bodies and Acupuncture Practitioners
Why Join ARA ?
ARA is proud to welcome ALL acupuncture practitioners, groups, organisations and colleges. Our ethos is to drive a cohesive and collaborative acupuncture community, where professionals work together to ensure the highest level of care for our patients and leading educational programmes, support and training for our members. We have many acupuncture member organisations and groups meaning we represent the most types of acupuncture in the UK. These member organisations and groups work together to discuss, promote and protect the future of acupuncture in the UK.
Why Join:
Have your organisation represented at the stakeholder table so you can have your say.
Remain unique in your community but have common support for your members.
We have a wide range of legal support in place to cover organisations needs without them needing this in house.
Use our advisories and codes of conduct to help everyone work to the same standards within the UK.
Use our heavily discounted, flexible and specially designed insurance scheme for practitioners.Â
We offer a large range of discounts with our partners which you can offer to your group instantly bring value to your organisation.Â
Discounted CPD and Courses for practitioners
How We've helped our members
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2024
- February 2024 Neurological Acupuncture Training as used in Integrated Rehabilitation in Primary Care in Israel
- February 2024 Managed to gain agreement for acupuncture to remain out of scope for Non-Surgical Cosmetic Procedures Licensing
- March 2024 Gained Agreement from all 5 depts involved in Blood Donation to remove waiting time and change legislation
- Partnering to encourage members to train in spotting Early Skin Cancer Detection
- July 2024 Training Practitioners in detailed anatomy training for safer needling
- We have much more in the pipeline, anticipating huge changes that will move the profession forward as a whole
2023
- January 2023 new scope of practice announced with full medical insurance
- January 2023 Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion Association (JAMA) launch
- January 2023 negotiated special offer and 60% discount on Digi-X Dynamic websites and services.
- March 2023 Fought a case and set a precedent on behalf of a member against a local authority who was preventing acupuncturists from working remotely.
- March 2023 Gained medical insurance for minor non-surgical medical procedures.
- March 2023 Gained SaBTO agreement of exemption for our members of the 4 month delay in giving blood after an acupuncture treatment.
- March 2023 Negotiated with two large testing company’s acceptance of acupuncture practitioners as medical healthcare professionals allowing them to receive patients test results directly.
- April 2023 Organised Phlebotomy courses and access to medical blood and gut testing for practitioners.
- April 2023 Gained addition of Moxa Pens to our standard insurance.
- April 2023 Negotiated a trade cost and access to the Mojo at home professional sperm test.
- May 2023 Organised a Mycology course which insures and allows practitioners to recommend mycology nutritional products.
- June 2023 Gained CQC approval for our members using medical testing and other medical procedures.
- Aug 2023Â Inclusion with HealthshieldÂ
- Sept/Oct/Nov – organised most comprehensive Moxa course in the UK
- Â Agreement from Balens to cover members who move from restrictive insurance policiesÂ
- We have much more in the pipeline, anticipating huge changes that will move the profession forward as a whole
2022
- January 2022 Release of our new logos to members.
- January 2022 Released our updated guidance on Adverse Affects.
- January 2022 Released our V8 Guidelines for relaxing clinic restrictions to a minimum.
- February 2022 Released our New guidelines for treating patients under 18 years of age.
- March 2022 Released NDA for use in clinic
- April 2022 Upgraded insurance to allow temporary cover for treatments abroad (excl US/Canada)
- April 2022 Westfield and Orchard Healthcare accepted BAF members
- April 2022 negotiated for BAF members to have access to free Covid Tests
- June 2022 April Insurance now accepting BAF members
- July 2022 Partnering with BNF allows AAC Members to have access to BNF app for free
- August 2022 Creation of Subsidised Therapy Fund (STF)
- August 2022 partnering with Pharma Nord to allow AAC members to have access to Practitioner programme with 33% discount
- September 2022 Partnered with digi-x marketing for large discounts on your website and online advertising needs. Please see Marketing
- October 2022 Creation of subsidised personalised clinic leaflets for members
- November 2022 Inaugural annual AAC Conference held in London with launch of AAC Roadmap
- December 2022 We welcomed Dean McQue as a Working Board Member
2021
- January 2021 Practitioners accepted in tier 2 for early vaccine and letters provided for practitioners to give to the NHS.
- January 2021 Practitioners accepted as key workers and so gained persimmon for their children to return to school.
- January 2021 Lockdown – Practitioners have permission to open for healthcare treatments.
- January 2021 BAF gains upgrade for all UK acupuncturists to the category of Healthcare Associate on the Office of National Statistics alongside osteopaths and physiotherapists.
- February 2021 Launched a totally new system for sharps disposal within the UK which we believe offers the cheapest commercial collection available.
- February 2021 BAF partnered up with the Hawthorne project to collect and report on client treatments
- March 2021 AAC members gain access to the Totum discount card for discounts on a wide range of services.
- May 2021 BAF gained expansion of London Licensing Exemption to include Auricular Acupuncture, Cosmetic Acupuncture, Tui-Na, Gua Sha, Cupping, Moxibustion, Herbal Medicine.
- June 2021 BAF finalised a new partnership and discount for the Acu-Track system.
- July 2021 Partnered with Clinisept and practitioners gained trade pricing.
- July 2021 Partnered with SumUp for discounts on point of sale equipment and rates of 1.69%.
- August 2021 Partnered with Sif Health client management software allowing practitioner discounts.
- September 2021 Gained key worker acceptance for potential fuel restrictions.
- October 2021 Supported practitioners against PSA decision to enforce ASA changes required to practitioners websites.
- October 2021 Created a workgroup to challenge HM Customs and Excise on VAT for healthcare professionals.
- October 2021 GMC accepts BAF request and makes the NHS low risk 15 minute advisory into medical guidelines which is essential to allow acupuncturists to stay open in lockdown.
- November 2021 Our members previously had voted to change our name to Association of Acupuncture Clinicians and this along with new logos was launched.
- November 2021 Released our V6 guidelines for reduction of restrictions following Goverment Guidelines.
- December 2021 Released our V7 guidelines to help everyone stay open and safe during Plan B.
2020
- March 21st 2020 First Lockdown
- March 31st 2020 Practitioners back open for emergency and healthcare treatments.
- April 2020 Gained an agreement in principle to remove the 4-month exclusion period for clients who wish to donate blood after having acupuncture.
- May 2020 New Balens insurance launched with 40% discount.
- June 2020 Permissions were gained to allow acupuncturists to carry out Covid testing and the leading test equipment made available.
- June 2020 Public Health England carried out the only specialist review of any group specifically for BAF practitioners.
- July 10th 2020 PHE negotiates that BAF should have been included with the healthcare professional’s permissions to return to full practice.
- July 13th 2020 PHE confirms all BAF practitioners can fully open to the public.
- July 15th 2020 BAF expands permissions to include all UK acupuncturists.
- September 2020 Fought and removed the requirement for track and trace in clinics.
- November 2020 Lockdown – BAF changed legislation and organised with PHE to have acupuncture for medical and healthcare reasons put into the Exemptions documentation in the November lockdown -item 47. This allowed ALL acupuncturists to return to work for medical and healthcare,
- November 2020 Tui-Na added to our permissions and practitioners were able to offer Tui-Na treatments under lockdown.
- December 2020 Permission gained for practitioners to stay open in tier 4 regions of the country.
- December 2020 London licensing exemption was gained for all practitioners.
The Most Flexible, Comprehensive and Cost Effective Professional Insurance
ARA has partnered with Balens to provide you with a heavily discounted but extremely comprehensive and flexible policy.
We have designed the scheme for acupuncturists which includes all the usual additional modalities such as moxa, cupping, gua sha etc.
Unlike block schemes, our policy is totally flexible and you may add other qualifications and insurance usually at no additional charge.Â
Many insurances do not cover specific skillsets of high risk such as blood-letting or the use of semi-permanent needles, however our scheme has been designed to be able to offer these as additional options as well as cover wider scopes of practice by including subjects such as phlebotomy and being able to offer private blood tests for our clients.Â
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