Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

My name is Jacqui de Jager, and I run The Skin Well™—a quiet project focused on skin health education and advocacy. I’m a therapist, not a lawyer. I don’t pretend to know the full reach of the NHS Act 2006, the Care Act 2014, or the Human Rights Act 1998.

But I do understand skin. And I can see something that’s easy to miss.

The Health and Care Act 2022 made space for regulating non-surgical aesthetic procedures. That’s a welcome move. It recognises that when the skin is involved, there’s risk—and that the public deserves protection.

But I’m quietly asking: why stop there?

All aesthetic treatments involve skin.

All skin care involves skin.

And skin is not just cosmetic. It’s an organ.

It’s part of the immune system. It reflects stress and inflammation. It impacts confidence, identity, and wellbeing. It’s also the only organ we expose daily to the outside world—and the one most people feel expected to manage on their own.

At the moment, that management happens with no consistent guidance, no national standards, and no formal public messaging—unless someone already has a diagnosed skin condition.

I’m not suggesting that all skin care should fall to the NHS.

I’m suggesting that all skin-related work, from home routines to professional care, should sit within the public health conversation—and be overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Right now, those who work with the skin—directly or indirectly—are trained under education frameworks, not health ones. And yet they’re expected to deliver safe, responsible care to a public that is often overwhelmed by choice, misinformed by marketing, and left without clear guidance on what to do—or who to turn to—when their skin doesn’t feel right.

If skin is important enough to be regulated when needles and lasers are involved, then surely it is also important enough to be supported when cleansers and moisturisers are involved too.

This isn’t about creating complexity.

It’s about providing clarity.

Because including skin in national guidance could:

• Help prevent avoidable skin issues

• Support mental health and confidence

• Reduce the pressure on GPs and dermatology referrals

• Align training across all who work with the skin—not just the medical few.

And this isn’t just about the Department of Health and Social Care.

Skin shows up everywhere—at home, at work, in education, leisure, housing, transport, and care.

It deserves a place in every setting where health and wellbeing are being shaped.

Skin should be included everywhere—because it is everywhere.

Respectfully,

Jacqui de Jager
The Skin Well™

📚 Connected Scenario(s):

• Scenario Zero: Naming Skin in Public Health
  The foundation of the entire case — making skin visible in national strategy.

• Scenario One: Social Prescribing
  Showing how skin fits naturally into prevention-focused models like social prescribing.

• Scenario Two: The First 1000 Days
  Advocating for the inclusion of skin in early-life health guidance and parental support.

• Scenario Three: Policy at Every Level
  Encouraging DHSC to lead the inclusion of skin across all areas of public health planning.
  

May 2025