CLAPA has had its first big success in influencing government legislation – reinforcing our role as advocates for people born with cleft.
Through successful campaigning and influencing work, we’ve secured changes to the Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Bill – to include safeguards and acknowledge people with more complex needs.
And our efforts have been acknowledged in the Scottish Parliament, with reference to CLAPA in the above video.
This new Scottish legislation introduces a proper regulatory framework for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, including dermal fillers, setting standards for who can carry them out and putting safeguards in place to protect patient safety.
Thanks to CLAPA’s involvement, the bill now also recognises that risks involved in non-surgical procedures are not the same for everyone.
This is a significant milestone for CLAPA. It demonstrates that our community and evidence-led, constructive approach can shape legislation in ways that directly improve safeguards for our community.
It acknowledges that people with more complex clinical backgrounds, including those affected by cleft, can face increased risks from non-surgical procedures – and introduces practical safeguards to better identify, assess and communicate those risks, marking a meaningful improvement in patient safety.
Lachlan Bruce, CLAPA’s Policy and Campaigns Manager, engaged with the Scottish Parliament to ensure the bill was amended to better reflect the needs and experiences of people born with cleft.
He said: “This is a clear policy win for CLAPA, and the result of working with MSPs across the parties to ensure the bill was amended to better reflect the needs and experiences of people affected by cleft.
“As a result, key amendments aligned with the issues we raised were passed. These include provisions requiring appropriate guidance to be developed, enabling additional safeguards where individual risk is higher such as for those born with a cleft, and strengthening requirements around medical assessment and informed consent.”
Lachlan worked with MSPs from across the parties to ensure the following two amendments were included in the Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Bill:
Amendment 88 – Allowing additional safeguards where individual risk is higher
This enables regulations to impose different or additional requirements where individual client risk factors are present – including risks linked to medical history or anatomical considerations.
Someone born with a cleft, or someone who has undergone multiple facial surgeries, may have altered anatomy or scar tissue that significantly increases the likelihood of complications from non-surgical procedures.
This amendment allows proportionate additional safeguards where higher risk is identified, and is a significant recognition in legislation that some groups, such as in our community, may face materially different levels of risk.
Amendment 89 – Strengthening assessment and informed consent
This requires providers to carry out and document a pre-procedure assessment of relevant medical history and to follow enhanced informed consent procedures where factors are identified that may increase the risk of harm.
This embeds core patient-safety principles into the regulatory framework, and ensures risks are identified in advance and clearly explained to clients.
While not prohibiting procedures, it helps ensure decisions by both practitioner and client are made with a proper understanding of potential harms, particularly for people with more complex clinical backgrounds such as those in the cleft community.
Lachlan added: “This is a significant milestone for CLAPA. It demonstrates that our community and evidence-led, constructive approach can shape legislation in ways that directly improve safeguards for our community.
“As we move into more legislative engagement of this kind we will build in more direct community involvement with this process, and plan for more influence in changing government policy to include the needs of people born with cleft.”