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Welcome Three Septembers ago I stood before leading industry
figures at Leisure Industry Week, in one of my first official jobs as Registrar, and set out my hopes for REPs. One of those was that fitness instructors were recognised as professionals, in particular by the medical profession, and that exercise referrals would be increased.
I’m therefore delighted to report that the Joint Consultative Forum (JCF) which is made up of six of the Royal Medical Colleges and representatives from the fitness industry including REPs and the FIA, has just completed a consultation period on the latest standards for Exercise Referral Services and hopes to publish these early next year.
THE REGISTER OF EXERCISE PROFESSIONALS
Third floor, 8-10 Crown Hill, Croydon, Surrey CR0 1RZ Telephone 020 8686 6464 www.exerciseregister.org
Registrar Jean-Ann Marnoch
Acting Registration Manager Dottie Calderwood cpd@exerciseregister.org
External Liaison Manager Rebecca Weissbort rebecca@exerciseregister.org
QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING STANDARDS SkillsActive Castlewood House, New Oxford St London WC1A 1PX Telephone 020 7632 2000
Technical Unit skills@skillsactive.com
EDITORIAL Publisher: Tor Davies, sportEX Editor: Sarah Owen, REPs sarah.owen@skillsactive.com
ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Telephone: 0845 652 1908 Email: reps@sportex.net
DESIGN & PRODUCTION Debbie Asher debbie@sportex.net
PUBLISHED BY sportEX (Centor Publishing Ltd) Contact: Tor Davies tor@sportex.net Telephone: 0845 652 1906 Website: www.sportex.net
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These standards will provide a framework which will make it much easier for doctors and medical practitioners to refer patients to exercise professionals. They will cover patient selection, qualifications, record keeping, medico-legal considerations, services and facilities.
But we, as exercise professionals, must ensure we are ready to meet the increased challenges these exercise referral standards bring. There are now National Occupational Standards for 10 categories at level 4 Specialist Instructor – Cancer, Cardiac Disease, Falls Prevention, Stroke, Back Pain, Obesity/Diabetes, Long Term Neurological Conditions, Chronic Respiratory Disease, Mental Health and Accelerated Rehabilitation (military only) as well as the level 3 Exercise Referral category, but currently only 2,500 REPs members are registered at level 3 Exercise Referral and just 1,500 at level 4.
It is my hope that as more courses are written, and then approved by SkillsActive, increasing numbers of members will take their careers to this next level paving the way for exercise referrals.
Jean-Ann Marnoch, Registrar
Our man Down Under – meet Craig Knox
REPs news Plus have your say on council park charges
Industry update
Research round-up
Introducing the new level 4 catgories
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The new REPs structure
Customer satisfaction – what you think of REPs
Posture perfect Chris Norris’ guide to optimal posture
The taxman cometh
Dr John Searle on setting standards
See the REPs journal online at http://bit.ly/REPsJournal
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