UK Spa Association

One of the terrible ironies of COVID-19 is that, for the best part of a year, the wellness industry has had to close its doors at a time when people have needed our services more than ever. 

While complementary therapies such as massage, aromatherapy and reflexology are of course highly enjoyable and relaxing, we all know these treatments have so much more to offer. A recent FHT survey* showed that ‘under normal circumstances’, more than 75% of professional therapists regularly support clients with health issues including stress and anxiety, low back pain, joint and mobility problems, soft tissue injuries, depression, cancer, chronic skin conditions and difficulty conceiving. 

Needless to say, government restrictions during COVID-19 have meant that people wanting to access complementary therapies for all of the above – and more besides – have sadly been unable to do so. And that’s just the people whose health was already affected. As each week passes, another report seems to be published that clearly highlights the huge impact that COVID-19 is having on our nation’s health and that once this awful virus finally abates, we are going to be left with a sea of people in desperate need of support. With the NHS already on its knees and its incredible staff dangerously close to burnout, the big question is, who is going to provide this? Having been in the industry for more than 20 years and having lost count of the incredible human stories I have heard during that time, the answer seems perfectly clear to me. Professional therapists. 

While complementary therapists obviously cannot ‘treat’ medical conditions or help the NHS with a backlog of surgical procedures, they can support those who might otherwise turn to primary care for something that can be tackled more effectively outside of the surgery walls. They can help to address stress and anxiety, which if left unchecked, can lead to a whole raft of mental and physical health issues. They can help to improve sleep, which is vital for not just our overall health, but also a healthy immune system. They can help clients to live with and manage their own health and symptoms and encourage self-care. And just as importantly, they can provide positive touch to those who are elderly or clinically vulnerable and have had to shield or self-isolate for months on end. 

Text and advice taken from new launch book, Sleep by Nick Littlehales 

• Move with your circadian rhythm and get plenty of natural light. Reduce the amount of blue light (from digital screens) you expose yourself to in the evening. 
• Know your chronotype. AMers (those who naturally wake up early and like early bedtimes) should look to get daylight in the afternoon to re-energise, while PMers (those who wake up and stay up later) should kickstart their morning with sunlight, to get them going. 
• Sleep in cycles, not hours and it will empower you to take control of your sleep. Even if you have a bad night’s sleep, you can easily make up for it. 
• Establish pre and post sleep routines that last 90 minutes each. Pre-sleep, exercise to wake your body up and do a gentle mental challenge (such as a world puzzle to stimulate your mind). 
• Nap to improve performance. Where that’s not possible, take a ‘mind break’ (have a cup of tea, make a phone call or look out of the window) every 90 minutes to give your mind a recovery window. 
• Sleep in the foetal position on your non-dominant side. Your less-used side is less sensitive. Aim for a gentle bend at the knees, with your arms out in front of you, gently folded. You should have a smooth, straight postural line through the neck, spine and bottom. 
• Create a harmonious sleep environment that’s cool, dark and free from clutter and technology. Your body makes melatonin (the hormone that makes us feel sleepy) when its dark, so block out ambient light in your bedroom with blackout blinds. 

- by The Spa Collaborative 

The essence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is ensuring your business aligns its positive impact on society, the environment and the economy with its values and mission.

The rate of the wellness industry growth is nearly twice that of global economic growth since 2015 (Global Wellness Institute) which twinned with the consumer shift towards ethical, sustainable brands with a clear commitment to diversity and inclusion make incorporating corporate responsibility essential.

By Diane Hey 

As we celebrate apprenticeship week and to continue the journey to a ‘skills led recovery’, we explore the benefit of being an apprentice….from an apprentice. 

The theme for National Apprenticeship Week 2021 is “Build the Future” as we encourage everyone to consider how apprenticeships can help individuals to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours required for a rewarding career, and employers to build their workforce with future ready skills.

Katie, began her Spa career in September 2019…. 

  ‘I first began my apprenticeship with Champneys as my employer and Armonia Training Academy as my provider in September 2019. I had always wanted to get into the beauty industry and when I came across this apprenticeship, I felt it could be the perfect fit. Recruitment days and interviews followed and I was delighted to secure the position!’

By Tara Moore, Head of Spa Operations – Galgorm Spa & Golf Resort and Sarah Johnson, Head of Spa – Rudding Park 

What I have found over the years is that each time it comes around our recruitment drive, the standard in applicants had dropped and within all elements, be it interview skills, appearance as well as technical ability. We (Galgorm Spa & Golf Resort) as a company began to ask ourselves, ‘How do we attract highly skilled and motivated therapists who not only understand a spa environment but also the benefits of regular treatments for both the body and mind?’

The idea of Galgorm’s Spa Academy was born!  Putting it into process was a long one however, as we needed to be sure this would work for us. Also, which awarding body would suit our needs. Which individual would head this up and as well as how we’d secure, strong apprentice team members who really wanted a career in spa therapy. 

Having overcome these initial questions, we have been running the Galgorm Academy for the last couple of years and unquestionably what we have found is, when you invest in people, when you let them truly understand the company that they are working for. When you take the time to train them within other departments within the same spa environment and show them that there can be a long, varied and satisfying career in spa. That’s when you get the best from them.  

By Alex Hurt, Spa Director – Weavers House Spa 

In a world that’s been rocked to its core, it’s important that we flex to its new shape, and boy oh boy, has this world changed! This virus, and the ensuing pandemic has helped us all to see the true value of life and what is actually important to us. On the flip side, it’s left us all with too much time to dive, introspectively, into our very own melting pot of emotions. 

Working within an empathetic industry of professionals that exist to make others feel ‘relaxed’, I think it’s time we systematically unpack why people need to ‘relax’ in the first place. In this article I will be exploring the real reasons why our clients come to us and discuss what we can do to begin to understand them more effectively. These are very different times, and relaxation can be just a buzz word; discovering the real reason that our clients need to relax should be our aim.

Cast your mind back to the time before this pandemic, when consultations were face to face, and we found out through a set of questions what our clients wanted to achieve from their treatments. We would check contra indications, lifestyle, allergies, and work out the key reason for them choosing to spend their time with us. Whilst they appreciated us and the services we offer, maybe they had others to comfort, touch and understand them or were they alone? We would ask them if they wanted to feel ‘energised, relaxed or rebalanced ‘. This set of questions was enough and ensured that we could deliver the right treatment for them.

Extract taken from Sage e-book 

As from 11pm (GMT) on 31 December 2020, the UK now have a customs border with EU countries, with full customs controls. This means import and export declarations will be required for a business task that was formerly comparatively straightforward, such as bringing goods into the UK from France or Germany. Customs and excise duty might be payable on imports, as well as VAT. To allow for a period of adjustment, the UK government is making allowances – some permanent, some temporary – that mean businesses aren’t faced with a sudden strain on their administrative resources, or overwhelming cash flow requirements. We take a look at some of these below, however, first it’s necessary to understand the changes that the end of the transition period have brought about as of 1^st January 2021. 

With a customs border now existing between the EU and UK (with the exception of Northern Ireland and Ireland), moving goods between the UK and EU is now considered importing and exporting. From an administrative point of view, this will involve customs declarations, and requires understanding of previously arcane knowledge such as commodity codes and customs procedure codes. The basics are as follows: 

Importing overview Customs and excise duties might be payable on imports into the UK from the EU, as with non-EU countries. As discussed below, you can make use of existing simplified import measures to reduce the administrative requirements. The UK Global Tariff (UKGT) replaces the EU’s Common External Tariff. It applies to all imports from countries for which the UK does not have a trade agreement. You can check the tariff for an import using the government website’s lookup tool. You may need to apply for licences to import certain goods into the UK, and some goods might require an inspection fee be paid. 

Whether it can ease symptoms of the virus or not, one in five Brits are deficient in vitamin D. Find below, suggestions in how we can be stocking up on the ‘sunshine vitamin’ this Winter:

IT CAN REDUCE DEPRESSION

There’s no doubt that 2020 has been a tough year for all, and medical staff are now expecting mental health issues to increase significantly, knowing that we will continue to see the effects of COVID-19 for a long time into the future. Vitamin D can play a vital role in regulating our mood and warding off depression so, as the darker, longer days creep in over Winter, it’s the perfect time to dose up. It’s worth remembering that the UK is more northerly than we think – it is actually equal to the Alaskan panhandle. The UK is also one of the cloudiest countries in the industrialised world.

IT CAN BOOST WEIGHT LOSS

It’s thought that the extra calcium the body gets from taking vitamin D supplements can have appetite-supressing effects. 

by Juliet Wheater

Who couldn’t do with a lift in this continued crazy world we’re living in right now? In these uncertain and anxious times, not only are we dealing with numerous stressors but many of us our finding the lockdown and post-Christmas pounds still creeping on. How about if we could find a way to help with both our physical and mental health?

Now we all know that exercise can help trim our waistlines and boost our energy levels, but it turns out that exercise could be more important to your mental health than even your economic status. In a study in The Lancet carried out by researchers from Oxford and Yale, they looked at links between mood and exercise across a sample of 1.2 million Americans.

The key findings were that people who exercise are on the whole happier than those that don’t. If you’re a numbers’ person then those that do exercise tend to feel bad for approximately 35 days a year, while those that don’t exercise can feel down for 53 days a year.

by Diane Hey - Therapist, Employer, Educator
Vice Chair Beauty Professional Apprenticeship Trailblazer Steering Group
Apprenticeship Ambassador

As the world faces the largest challenge known in our lifetime, the wellbeing and close contact service sector has spent many months closed to welcoming guests and clients and when open for short bursts of activity is has been at a severely reduced capacity.

Covid 19 coupled with the already known skills gap and then leaving the EU has brought and will bring challenges for some time to come, so how do we emerge from this? As a sector known for its cup half full positivity, it will also provide opportunities. The increased awareness in the need for better self-care and wellbeing on all levels, physical, mental and emotional will let us seize an opportunity to embrace our own recovery… 

The Government has stepped in to provide an unprecedented response with substantial funding to employers to retain staff via the Job retention scheme, grants and bounce back loans, but how do we strengthen and build our teams with the world class skills needed to succeed?

Apprenticeships form part of this toolkit that lead to a workplace skills led recovery….created by employers for employers. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education have responsibility in England for approving the apprenticeship standards (https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/about/).

Standards are developed by Employers from Trailblazer groups to ensure apprentices gain the correct level of knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) they need to carry out the job role.  

An apprentice is an employee, who spends at least 20% of their working time completing ‘off the job’ training to gain the KSBs, leading to an end point assessment, which is graded. The employer and training provider develop the curriculum plan to meet the needs of all parties and work towards achieving the apprenticeship standard as published. Each standard has a recommended length of time but must last at least one year and a day. 

The Beauty Professional Apprenticeship suite has the following standards available:

Beauty Therapist (https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/beauty-therapist/)

Advanced Beauty Therapist (https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/advanced-beauty-therapist/)

We at the UK Spa Association are delighted to present our 15^th National Spa Week as from 9^th – 15^th November. Now that spa is back to work and in no small part, due to the incredible pressure that your not-for-profit, trade association applied through our seat on the government taskforce, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy working group, as well as our connections with other trade associations and advisory boards, the UKSA team are delighted to present National Spa Week 2020 for the new age. Not to be missed! 

Following on from last year’s success as a trade-only educational period, this year sees a return of our empowerment week for the industry, as we are proud to offer practical and implementable advice whilst the world continues to live with COVID. 

We at the UKSA invite you, the passionate spa community to come together during this specially created week, to learn with and from each other. It’s our aim to be at the forefront of issuing quick, actionable suggestions that yourself and your team can implement into your own places of work during these times of difficulty. Prepare to learn, grow and be inspired! 

More and more people are having therapy; around 1.5 million Britons saw a private therapist last year, and with the Covid pandemic triggering mental health issues for many, it’s likely this year will be significantly higher.  

Deciding to look for professional help is a big step and many clients report that they have been considering it for years before they finally book a session an initial session. There is still some stigma surround mental health, but dozens of well-known entertainers, sportspeople, politicians and businesspeople have gone public about how beneficial they have found therapy in helping them through low periods or traumas.

So how do you know if therapy is for you? You could start by asking yourself these questions:

• Do you feel that you are running into the same problems over and over again?
• Do you feel that you spend unreasonable amounts of time thinking about something traumatic that has happened to you? 
• Do you feel that you no longer enjoy things that once gave you pleasure?
• Do you use addictive behaviour to try to feel better? 

If your answers are mostly a resounding yes, counselling or therapy could help. But before then, what do you need to know about how it works?

By Juliet Wheater 

It was reported back in April, that the Himalayas were visible from India , amid the government’s lockdown to fight the corona virus, allowing residents to see the towering peaks 125 miles away from Punjab for the first time in 30 years, indicating cleaner air. 

However, as life begins to get back to normal, clean air is once again, increasingly hard to come by, so what we can do to stay healthy? 

According to the Royal College of Physicians, air pollution is responsible for around 40,000 deaths a year in the UK. Air pollution is a known cause of lung cancer and is connected to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and changes in the brain linked to dementia, says Professor Stephen Holgate, RCP’s adviser on air quality. Other chronic health conditions, such as asthma, bronchial diseases and skin problems, are also triggered by exposure to pollutants. And for children, the elderly and those with existing respiratory conditions, pollution is a major concern, states Dr Nick Hopkinson, medical director at the British Lung Foundation. (Source: Woman & Home magazine). 

With pollution levels in many parts of the country regularly exceeding the World Health Organisation’s safety guidelines, it’s time for all of us to make some changes and not just temporary ones, during a pandemic. 

By Juliet Wheater 

People are falling in love with crystals, a trend accelerated by celebrity endorsements from the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Victoria Beckham, Katy Perry, Khloe Kardashian, Bella Hadid, and Adele.

Adele uses citrine to help combat stage fright. Victoria Beckham is said to carry a black obsidian with her for protection and Miranda Kerr is understood to keep her rose quartz next to her skincare products, in order to infuse them with energy. 

Rose quartz and amethyst are usually displayed within homes and other working and living spaces to “balance negative energy.” More latterly, such stones are also sealed into water bottles to infuse the water with their declared healing, grounding, and restoring properties. We’re also seeing a rise in the popularity of crystal skin care and crystal light therapy. Crystals are being touted as cures for stress and pain, and as having the ability to “reduce radiation” from smartphones – among other things.

The UK spa industry needs some good cheer just now as it begins the slow journey out of lockdown. Perhaps this can come from looking to the past rather than the future and reflecting that it was this country that led the way in developing the whole modern concept of the spa. It is an achievement that should provide pride and encouragement as we prepare for the challenges ahead.

Spas have been a central feature of European culture since classical times when the ancient Greeks and Romans discovered the benefits and pleasures of bathing in thermal mineral waters. It was only in the eighteenth century, however, that Europe’s spas came into their own as elegant resorts for a clientele drawn initially by the health benefits of taking the waters but increasingly also by the diversions offered and the chance to mix with the well-to-do. Spas became the pre-eminent places in which to be seen and to socialise. They developed a distinctarchitectural landscape in which the bath house was joined by a pump room, for taking the waters and promenading, and assembly rooms, for socialising, gambling, dancing and concerts. These buildings were situated in attractive parks, adding to the atmosphere of elegance and relaxation. A complex set of rules and strict etiquette governed the social life of spas during the ‘season’, which usually extended from May to September, when ‘the Company’, as the patrons were known, forsook the noise and the stench of cities for the clean air and healing waters of these semi-rural oases. 

The English were in the van of these developments, taking to the waters more enthusiastically and in greater numbers than their Continental neighbours. Bath established itself in the first half of the eighteenth century as the most elegant and popular European spa, with Richard ‘Beau’ Nash establishing the complex etiquette which governed the social and recreational life of the Company. It became the model for Continental spas, notably Spa in Belgium, Baden bei Wien in Austria and Baden bei Zurich in Switzerland, which developed in a similar way in the latter half of the century. They followed Bath’s lead in establishing a daily regime for guests which began with the serious business of drinking and bathing in the waters, continued with morning and afternoon promenades and social gatherings to exchange gossip, and concluded with balls, gambling, concerts and theatrical performances in the evening.  

The growing popularity of spas was a direct consequence of the emergence of what we would now call health tourism. The Enlightenment brought a new emphasis across Europe on environment and on the benefits of travel for healing the body as well as cultivating the mind. The English were in the van of this movement and it was the English spas of Harrogate, Buxton, Tunbridge Wells and Cheltenham as well as Bath that picked up the benefit, becoming the first resorts to which people travelled as much for a change of scene as for other purposes. 

- by Juliet Wheater

Self-care can include a myriad of practices that an individual finds both enjoyable and in some way promotes physical, emotional, spiritual and/or mental health. According to the definition from the World Health Organisation, self-care is the behaviours you do to take care of your own health and can include hygiene, nutrition, leisure activities, sports, exercise, seeking professional healthcare services when needed, and much more.

During a global pandemic, the need to care for our own health, every aspect of it, is of the utmost importance, as we currently emerge from such unusual circumstances and look to navigate a new normal, is not easy.

Returning to work 

As we recalibrate into our “new normal” and understand how we can best look after our mental and physical wellness, along with our Spa industry community trying to best nurture our businesses back to operations - wellbeing has never seemed so important. How do you re-launch with something that's relevant, with an offering that aligns with your client's new-found priorities and offers your business to be part of pioneering new sector? 

CBD could hold all of the answers. 

The UK CBD market generated 150M in the first 4 months of 2020 alone, this was a 50% rise in 2019, naming the hottest new trend, CBD, loved by the likes of the Kardashians and some of the UK’s Top Spa Directors.

What is CBD? 

- by Juliet Wheater 

Over recent years, there has been a significant rise in the attention of inclusivity and the authentic representation of people with disabilities, the LGBTQ community and racial diversity within the beauty and wellness industries. 

During 2017, the largest diversity story was the launch of pop star Rihanna’s beauty brand, Fenty, a cosmetics line that launched its new foundation line, in no less than 40 shades. Vogue magazine at the time, named it a top 2018 beauty trend, exclaiming Fenty Beauty “singlehandedly changed the conversation.”

This conversation continues and more recently, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, we learn that on these shores, black and minority wellness professionals have united and signed a charter demanding reform for racial equality in the UK wellness industry. ‘The Wellness Industry Charter for Racial Diversity, Inclusion and Access’, aims to tackle three diversity challenges: health inequality, lack of access, and under-representation faced by black and minority groups.

-by Juliet Wheater 

Although change is undeniable, it generally just evolves, not usually with ferocious pace, unless a crisis occurs. Covid-19 is one such global crisis and we’ve all had to adapt and change. We’ve implemented new ways of coping and of working. 

Seeing as the very basis of spa is physical touch, our wellness industry is one sector that is bound to experience quite a transformation, for example: the introduction of new ways of working, new ways of interacting with clients as well as patterns of consumption. 

Beauty & wellness will thrive again as looking good is intrinsically linked to feeling good. A relaxing massage or a physical makeover, is linked to one’s self-esteem, providing empowerment.