Guide
Advertising rules for health services: ASA, CAP and CQC
Marketing a mental health service means working within several sets of rules at once. This guide maps who is responsible for what, so you know where to look. It is general information, not legal advice.
Who is responsible for what
| Body | What it covers | Why it matters for marketing |
|---|---|---|
| CQC | Registration and inspection of health and adult social care providers in England | Whether you must register, how you describe your registration and displaying your rating |
| ASA and CAP | The UK advertising codes and their enforcement, across the UK | Claims, testimonials, prices and tone in adverts and on your own website |
| HCPC | Regulation of practitioner psychologists and other health professions | Protected titles and registrants’ standards of conduct |
| GMC | Regulation of doctors, including psychiatrists | Doctors’ duties when publishing information about their services |
| MHRA | Medicines and medical devices | The ban on advertising prescription only medicines to the public |
| ICO | Data protection | Health data, enquiry forms, tracking and email marketing |
Outside England, independent healthcare is regulated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and the RQIA in Northern Ireland.
CQC: registration and how you talk about it
In England, providers who carry on regulated activities must be registered with CQC. For mental health clinics, whether you are in scope depends on the services you provide and who provides them, so check CQC’s guidance on scope of registration rather than assuming either way.
If you are registered:
- Describe your registration accurately, including which location and which regulated activities it covers.
- Display your current rating on your website and at your premises, as the regulations require for rated providers. CQC offers a widget for websites.
- Do not imply CQC endorses your clinic or a particular service. CQC registers and inspects; it does not recommend providers.
- Keep the rating current. An old rating shown after a new inspection is misleading.
The ASA and the CAP Code
The Advertising Standards Authority enforces the UK advertising codes. The Committee of Advertising Practice writes the non-broadcast code, usually called the CAP Code. It applies to paid adverts and also to marketing claims on your own website and on social media you control.
Two sections matter most for clinics. Section 3 covers misleading advertising, including prices, comparisons, testimonials and endorsements. Section 12 covers medicines, medical devices and health related products and services, including the need for evidence behind health claims and limits on offering advice for conditions that need suitably qualified supervision.
In practical terms, for a mental health clinic:
- Objective claims, such as how effective a therapy is, need evidence. Avoid claims you cannot support.
- Do not suggest a promised result, a cure or a set timescale for recovery.
- Testimonials must be genuine and must not be used to make claims you could not make directly.
- Prices must be clear, including anything a patient will reasonably have to pay on top.
- Do not cause fear or distress to drive enquiries, and take care not to exploit people who may be vulnerable.
- Describe clinicians’ qualifications accurately. Implying a title or qualification someone does not hold is misleading.
CAP publishes advice on health and therapy marketing and runs a copy advice service. ASA rulings, which are public, are a useful way to see how the rules are applied in practice.
Professional regulators: individual duties
Your clinicians carry their own professional duties into your marketing. Practitioner psychologists must meet the HCPC’s standards of conduct, performance and ethics, and only HCPC registrants may use its protected titles. Psychiatrists, as doctors, are covered by GMC guidance, which expects information doctors publish about their services to be factual, verifiable and not to exploit patients’ vulnerability. Counsellors and psychotherapists on accredited registers, such as BACP and UKCP, follow their body’s ethical framework.
A clinic’s marketing that breaks these duties puts its clinicians at risk, not just the business. Our psychology practice page covers titles in more detail.
Medicines: the line you must not cross
Prescription only medicines cannot be advertised to the public in the UK. This is set in law and enforced by the MHRA, and the CAP Code reflects it. It is especially relevant for ADHD services and psychiatry clinics. You can explain how your prescribing and review process works. You should not promote particular medicines, show brand names as part of your offer or imply that an assessment leads to a prescription. Our ADHD clinic page has more on this.
Data protection and tracking
Information about someone’s mental health is special category data under UK data protection law. That affects enquiry forms, email marketing and online tracking. Think carefully before using advertising pixels or remarketing on pages about specific conditions, keep forms to what you need, and make sure your privacy notice explains what happens to enquiries. The ICO publishes guidance.
What this means for AI search and SEO
The rules and good visibility point the same way. Accurate titles, clear fees, careful wording and genuine independent reviews are what regulators expect, and they are also what makes a clinic easy for AI tools to describe with confidence. Exaggeration rarely helps, because AI tools increasingly cross check claims against other sources.
Read more about AI search visibility and mental health SEO.
A pre publication checklist
- Is every claim about effectiveness supported, and worded carefully?
- Is every clinician’s title and registration accurate?
- Are fees and waits current, complete and dated?
- Is there anything that could identify a patient?
- Is any prescription only medicine mentioned in a promotional way?
- If CQC registered, is the current rating displayed?
- Does the page say how to get urgent help, and that you are not a crisis service if you are not?
Questions clinic owners ask
Do the advertising rules apply to our own website?
Yes. The CAP Code covers marketing communications on a business’s own website and on social media accounts it controls, as well as paid adverts. Factual information, such as your terms or opening hours, is not usually treated as advertising, but claims about your services are.
Does our clinic need to register with CQC?
It depends on what you do and where. In England, providers carrying on regulated activities, such as some treatment and assessment services, must register with CQC. Whether your services fall within scope depends on the activities and who carries them out. Check CQC’s guidance on scope of registration and take advice if unsure.
Do we have to show our CQC rating on our website?
If you are a CQC registered provider with a rating, the regulations require you to display it on your website as well as at your premises. CQC provides widgets and guidance on how to do this.
Can we use before and after stories?
In mental health care, stories that imply a particular outcome are very likely to be treated as claims that need evidence, and they raise confidentiality issues. Most clinics should avoid them.
Where can we get advice on a specific advert?
CAP, the body that writes the code, publishes guidance and offers a copy advice service. For regulation and legal questions specific to your clinic, take advice from a qualified adviser.
Is this guide legal advice?
No. It is general information to help clinic owners understand which rules exist and where to look. Rules change, so always check the current guidance from each body.
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