Raising a concern about a practitioner or a booking

• Cancelling. Go to your appointments in your dashboard. You can cancel online up to 24 hours before the session, and you’ll get a full refund automatically. If you booked the session from a prepaid package, it goes back into your package instead.
• Less than 24 hours to go. You can’t cancel online, so message your practitioner directly. Late cancellations and missed sessions aren’t refundable unless the practitioner decides to refund you.
• If the practitioner cancels, you always get a full refund.
• Refunds go back to the payment method you used. They usually arrive within 5 to 10 working days, depending on your bank.

If a refund hasn’t arrived, you’ve been charged twice, your practitioner didn’t turn up, or something else has gone wrong, contact us with the date of your booking and the practitioner’s name, and we’ll look into it. Our terms of service set out the cancellation policy in full.

Tell us if you’re worried about a practitioner you found on CONNECT. For example, if:

• their name, title or registration number doesn’t match the official register (our verification page explains what we check);
• they behaved unprofessionally or made you feel unsafe;
• they gave you advice you think was unsafe;
• they asked you to pay them outside CONNECT, or shared your information without your permission;
• a review on their profile looks fake (see our reviews policy).

If you’ve had advice that worries you, speak to your GP before you change your diet or any treatment.

Use our contact form. It helps if you include:

• the practitioner’s name, or a link to their profile;
• the date of your booking, if you had one;
• what happened, in your own words;
• screenshots or copies of any messages that matter. We don’t read your messages with practitioners, so please include the parts that are relevant;
• what you’d like to happen.

If your concern is about someone’s safety, say so at the start of your message so we can deal with it first.

1. We reply, usually within two working days.
2. We look into it. Depending on the concern, that can mean checking the booking and payment records, re-checking the practitioner’s registration, and asking the practitioner for their account of what happened.
3. If we think clients could be at risk, we can take the practitioner’s profile out of search results while we look into it.
4. We tell you what we’ve done. We may not be able to share everything, for example where it involves someone else’s private information.

Raising a concern won’t affect your CONNECT account.

You can also leave a review of your session. A review and a concern are separate. We’ll never ask you to change or remove a review as part of sorting out a concern.

What we can do

• re-check a practitioner’s registration on the official register;
• take a practitioner’s profile out of search results, straight away if needed, or remove them from CONNECT;
• withdraw a practitioner’s verification;
• suspend a practitioner’s or a client’s account;
• remove reviews that break our reviews policy;
• pass a concern to a practitioner’s regulator or register where we think it’s needed.

What we can’t do

• We can’t decide whether a practitioner is fit to practise, or put conditions on their registration. Only their regulator or register can do that.
• We can’t give medical advice or judge whether clinical advice was right. Our medical disclaimer explains why.
• We can’t award compensation for a practitioner’s advice. Practitioners are independent professionals, responsible for their own advice and insured for it.

For a serious concern about a practitioner’s fitness to practise, such as unsafe practice, dishonesty or misconduct, you can go straight to the organisation that holds their registration. You don’t need to contact us first, and you can contact both of us. Every CONNECT profile shows which register the practitioner is on.

Dietitians in the UK: the HCPC

The Health and Care Professions Council investigates concerns about the fitness to practise of professionals on its register. Anyone can raise a concern, including members of the public: raise a concern with the HCPC (opens in a new tab). The HCPC doesn’t deal with customer service problems, refunds or compensation (see what the HCPC can’t investigate (opens in a new tab)). If someone calls themselves a dietitian without being registered, you can report misuse of title to the HCPC (opens in a new tab).

Dietitians in Ireland: CORU

CORU’s fitness to practise team considers complaints about registered dietitians in Ireland, made using its complaint form: how to make a complaint to CORU (opens in a new tab). CORU can only act on serious concerns about a registrant’s ability to practise, and it can’t help you claim compensation (see the limits of what CORU can do (opens in a new tab)). To report someone using the title “dietitian” without being registered, make an enforcement referral to CORU (opens in a new tab).

Registered Nutritionists: the Association for Nutrition

The AfN considers complaints and concerns about people on its UK Voluntary Register of Nutritionists: raise a concern with the AfN (opens in a new tab). The person must be on the register at the time. Where possible, the AfN asks you to raise the issue with the nutritionist first.

The AfN register is voluntary. The AfN can take action on someone’s registration, but “nutritionist” isn’t protected by law, so it can’t stop anyone calling themselves a nutritionist.

• Your personal data. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, our privacy policy explains your rights and how to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
• Consumer advice. In the UK, the Citizens Advice consumer service (opens in a new tab) can explain your rights. In Ireland, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (opens in a new tab) publishes consumer advice.
• Children and vulnerable adults. If someone is in immediate danger, call 999 (112 or 999 in Ireland). In the UK, you can report concerns about a child to the local council (opens in a new tab). In Ireland, contact Tusla (opens in a new tab) or An Garda Síochána.

If you have a concern about a client, for example abusive messages, contact us. We can suspend client accounts that break our terms.

If we restrict or remove your listing, we’ll tell you why. If you disagree with a decision we’ve made about your listing, verification or a review, reply to our email or contact us and we’ll look at it again.