Dear all,

I am a EHO working for a London Councils Licensing Enforcement Team.

The role of my job is to deal with Health & Safety inspections as well as pre and renewal of licenses.

If any of you have any questions regarding these kinds of visits my colleauges and I would like to offer our assistance.

If you would rather not share problems that you may have please PM me but I would like to share all questions & answers with the forum with names removed.

Now any advise we give is our own opinion (and that of our reasearch) and not that of our Council and we will not be legally bound to our answers.

That said we would love to help.

We will also try to post any useful legal and guidance updates we come across.

Regards

Judge Dredd.

Welcome judge dredd, can you answer questions for the whole of england or only london ?

We will try and answer questions for the whole of England but that maybe specific to any local bylaws.

We will try and deal with all aspects of Salons so nails, hair, beauty treatments and therapy etc.

Ok then, i am in the process of buying a salon in west Yorkshire, I asked the lady that is selling about licenses and regulations etc thinking that she would know as she would have to have them in place but she told me that i don't need any licenses and that there arent any rules and regulations to follow, I myself find this hard to believe, can you shed any light on this for me please
I will be doing nails, waxing, spray tanning, ear candling, there is one stand up sun bed in the salon.

Just a few questions first.

how many people do you hope to have as staff full and part time
will you do any treatments yourself

Just wanted to wish you a very warm welcome to the Salon Geek, I'm sure your advice will be invaluable. Some of us offer invasive treatments like permanent makeup, electrolysis etc so I presume you will be able to help with those? However, it would be wise for you to check where people are from before replying as you may be giving advice to someone who does not live in England!!!!

Louby Lou if I was you, I'd get that confirmed in writing!

Welcome Chris, so glad you got here in the end.

Welcome to the site
I'm sure your input will be very useful and helpful. Could you fill out your profile please so that members can see what it is you do when you reply to other posts, thanks.

Hi,
It will depend on where in West Yorkshire you live but I have looked at Leeds as It is a large city.
The council's environmental health service issues licences to regulate businesses offering certain personal treatments to the public. They carry out inspections to make sure that these businesses meet hygiene and safety standards set by health and safety laws in the UK. The following types of personal treatment businesses must be registered with Leeds City Council before they can practice in Leeds;

• acupuncture;
• electrolysis;
• ear or body piercing;
• tattooing.

Offering any of these treatments to the public without an appropriate licence is against the law.

In Leeds the treatments you mentioned above would not need to be Licensed but you will need to register the buisness.

I hope this helps.

Here is some useful advise for Hygiene and Health & Safety.


HAIRDRESSING

Cleanliness


Prior to use, any towels, cloths, neckwool, or other article applied to the head and face shall not have been used in connection with any other customer unless it has been adequately cleaned.

Prior to use, all gowns/wraps shall be clean.

It is strongly recommended that all combs, hair brushes, scissors, bristle brushes and other similar equipment be sterilised or thoroughly disinfected, prior to use with each customer. Autoclaving is the recommended sterilising method to use in this case.

However, if a chemical disinfection method is used (e.g. Barbicide), it must be administered correctly for proper disinfection of equipment. This includes thoroughly scrubbing / washing equipment with soap and hot water prior to soaking in the chemical solution, which should be for a minimum of 20 minutes. This will necessitate having duplicate sets of some items to ensure that the full soaking time is achieved. The dilution factor used must be strictly according to the manufacturers instructions and the solution changed at least daily.

In each case all equipment used, (combs, brushes, scissors and other equipment) should be washed/scrubbed with soap and hot water prior to use with each customer.

Razors - only disposable blades should be used, and these should be discarded after use on one customer. The disposable blade models must be cleansed thoroughly after use. Electric razors are difficult to sterilise and their use should be avoided.

Clippers - manual clippers with detachable blades should be used and be regularly cleaned and disinfected.

If the skin is accidentally penetrated (even only slightly) by any of the items above, the risk of transmitting either HIV or Hepatitis B must be prevented. A sterilisation procedure must therefore be followed before use is permitted on another customer. This must include either:-

Sterilising by autoclave OR soaking in 70% alcohol or soaking in 10% bleach solution for 15 minutes OR equally effective approved method.

Scissors or other items should be placed in a clean paper tissue until they are sterilised.

Keep basins clean using suitable cleanser. Other surfaces should be washed at the end of each day with a solution of household detergent in hot water. These surfaces may also be regularly wiped with 70% surgical spirit or similar alcohol based disinfectant.

Floors and chairs should be kept clean and regularly washed down.

In the unlikely event of a blood spill on a surface, use neat bleach left on for 1 minute, then washed off with hot water and detergent or some equally effective virus destroying process.

Used razors and blades and other sharp objects should be placed in a Sharps Box and disposed of as agreed with the Environmental Health Division.

To make it easier to maintain reasonable standards of cleanliness, a written cleaning schedule should be drawn up, indicating the details and frequency of cleaning requirements and allocation of responsibilities and duties. The schedule should include written procedures for the cleaning/disinfection of equipment, the salon and action with any blood/cuts.

HAND WASHING


A separate wash hand basin with hot and cold water must be available in, or within easy access to the salon, and must be accessible at all times. In this case, we will accept the allocation of one of the basins in the salon for such use. Soap must be provided, together with a suitable means of hand drying. A sign should be placed above the basin saying "Hand Washing Only".

Staff should wash their hands using a suitable soap after the treatment of each customer and hands should be thoroughly dried. Supplies of barrier creams and after-work creams must be made available. This reduces the risk of dermatitis.

Provide a supply of hot and cold water or water at a suitably controlled temperature at the wash hand basin allocated for hand washing.

Provide a sign above the basin to be used for hand washing saying "Hand Washing Only".

MIXING FACILITIES FOR CHEMICALS


A separate sink must be provided for the cleaning of equipment and mixing of products. If the sink in the staff welfare area is allocated for this use other arrangements must be made for drink making and cup washing (e.g. water must be available separately for making drinks, and cups washed up at the end of each day).

STAFF/WELFARE


It is recommended that all staff wear suitable clean overalls/protective clothing and this is worn only when working in the salon.

It is recommended that no jewellery should be worn on hands/wrists apart from wedding rings and watches.

Thanks for the info, but maybe this post would be better started as a new thread in the hair geek to make it easier to refer back to? I know it takes a while to get the hang of these forums !

Hi Judge Dread and Welcome - totally WICKED to have you here!!

Welcome aboard,your expertise will be invaluable to many

Oh i like the quote btw