Terms and Conditions

Your Service at a Glance

Before you read the full Terms and Conditions, here's a plain-language summary of the key things to know. This summary is for convenience only — the full terms below are what you're agreeing to.

What is Lifespan Nutrition?	A dietetic and nutrition practice offering paediatric feeding therapy, women's health nutrition, and general nutrition consultations.
Who provides the service?	Dr Melissa Bujtor — HCPC Registered Dietitian (DT036246) and Registered Nutritionist (RNutr) — practising through Lifespan Nutrition Ltd.
How are sessions structured?	Up to 60 minutes, at a frequency agreed between you and your practitioner. Sessions may be in person or online.
What does it cost?	Fees are confirmed at booking. Self-funded fees are due 48 hours before your session. If your treatment is funded by an insurer, see Section 2.
Can I cancel?	With 48+ hours' notice, your fee is credited or refunded. With less notice we may charge our reasonable loss, up to the session fee. If you booked online or by phone you also have a 14-day cooling-off right — paying for an appointment inside those 14 days means asking us to start, so you'd pay for any session already given (Section 11).
Is it recorded?	Only if you opt in separately. You can decline or withdraw at any time and it will not affect your care.
Is AI used?	AI-assisted tools support clinical note-taking and reporting. A qualified practitioner always reviews any output and remains responsible for your care.
What about my data?	All data is handled under UK data protection law. Adult records kept for 8+ years; children's records until their 25th birthday or 8 years, whichever is longer.
Children and consent	Agreeing to these terms is not consent to treatment — that is discussed and agreed separately. A child who understands the decision may consent themselves.
What if I'm unhappy?	Tell us — we'll acknowledge within 5 working days. You can also raise concerns about the practitioner with the HCPC at any time.

Full Terms and Conditions follow below.

Version: 3.0 | Effective Date: 1 September 2026 | Previous Version: 1.0 (February 2026)

These Terms and Conditions are the agreement between Lifespan Nutrition Ltd (registered in England and Wales, Company No. 12698638, registered office Springbank Clinic, 13 Pembroke Road, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 1XR) and the Client — the adult receiving services, or the parent, guardian, or carer arranging and paying for a child's or adolescent's care.

Services are provided by Dr Melissa Bujtor, HCPC Registered Dietitian (registration number DT036246) and Registered Nutritionist (RNutr). "Dietitian" is a protected title and Dr Bujtor is regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council, practising under its Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics and Standards of Proficiency for Dietitians. You can verify her registration at hcpc-uk.org.

We give you these terms and your booking details before you commit. By requesting a booking after receiving them, you agree to these terms; the agreement is formed when we confirm your booking.

These terms cover Lifespan Nutrition services. Participation in the SUSTAIN programme is governed by its own separate agreement.

1. Sessions

Sessions are scheduled at a frequency agreed between you and the practitioner. Each session lasts up to 60 minutes. Some sessions run shorter where that is clinically appropriate — for example where a child's capacity on the day is limited. The fee covers the appointment and the associated clinical work, not only the time in the room.

Services may include nutrition and dietetic assessment, dietary treatment, and paediatric feeding therapy, within the practitioner's competence. Care is coordinated with your GP and other professionals where appropriate. Anything requiring assessment or treatment outside dietetic scope will be identified and referred on.

2. Fees and Payment

Self-funded. Fees are due 48 hours before each session. Payment may be made by bank transfer, online card payment, or other methods we make available. Payment details are provided at booking.

Insurer-funded. Please agree insurer funding with us before booking, and provide your insurer, membership and authorisation details along with any required referral. Recognition of the practitioner does not guarantee that your policy covers a particular service. We will confirm whether we invoice your insurer directly or you pay and claim back. Where we bill the insurer, the insurer-funded amount is not payable by you in advance.

You remain responsible for any policy excess and for charges your policy does not cover. Any top-up above the insurer's rate will be explained and agreed with you before treatment, and we will not charge one where our agreement with the insurer prohibits it. We will tell you before further treatment if your funding limit is close, so you can decide whether to continue self-funded. Amounts you owe personally are due within 14 days of an itemised invoice.

Price changes. We give at least one month's notice. New prices apply only to bookings made after the change takes effect — confirmed appointments and prepaid blocks keep their agreed price.

Blocks. Where a discounted block is booked, the confirmation states the number of sessions, the total price and any expiry date. Unused sessions are refunded at the discounted price paid per session, less any cancellation charge properly due.

Where payment is outstanding we may pause further sessions, except where pausing would put the client at clinical risk — in which case we will discuss safe next steps or onward referral.

3. Cancellation and Rescheduling

By the Client. Please give at least 48 hours' notice. With 48+ hours' notice, your fee is credited to a future session or refunded.

With less than 48 hours' notice, or for a missed session, we may charge our reasonable net loss, up to the session fee. We will take reasonable steps to reduce that loss and will deduct any costs saved or income from filling the appointment. No charge applies where the cancellation results from something we have done, or where the statutory right in Section 11 applies.

By the practitioner. If we cancel, you may choose either a rescheduled session at no cost or a full refund of any fee paid for it.

4. Client Information

Please give accurate, up-to-date information about health, medical history, allergies and other relevant matters before starting, and tell us promptly about any significant change.

Progress is discussed during sessions. The booking confirmation identifies what is included. Detailed reports or work outside sessions may carry an additional fee, agreed with you in advance.

5. Confidentiality and Data Protection

Lifespan Nutrition Ltd is the data controller (ICO registration ZC234753). Personal and health information is handled in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Information is shared with other professionals only with consent, except where required by law or for safeguarding.

Our Privacy Notice explains the purposes and legal bases for processing, who receives your data, any international transfers, retention periods and your rights. Where treatment is insurer-funded, we share the clinical information your insurer reasonably requires to authorise and settle claims; your insurer is a separate data controller.

Retention. Adult records: at least 8 years from last contact. Children's records: until the child's 25th birthday (or 26th if 17 at conclusion of treatment), or 8 years from last contact, whichever is longer. Records are securely destroyed after the retention period.

Your rights. You may ask us — verbally or in writing — to access, correct or delete your personal data, subject to our retention obligations. Contact enquiries@lifespan-nutrition.co.uk. We respond without undue delay and normally within one month; we will explain any extension. If you are dissatisfied, you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

6. Consent to Treatment

Agreeing to these terms is not consent to treatment. Before an assessment or intervention, the practitioner will explain its purpose, what it involves, the expected benefits, any material risks, and the reasonable alternatives including doing nothing. Consent is recorded, revisited as care changes, and you may withdraw it at any time.

Children under 16. The practitioner assesses whether the child understands the particular decision. A child who does may consent for themselves, and we will encourage them to involve their parent or carer. Otherwise consent comes from a person with parental responsibility, or another person with lawful authority, acting in the child's best interests. The child is involved as far as they are able.

Young people aged 16–17. Presumed able to consent for themselves (Family Law Reform Act 1969 s.8; Mental Capacity Act 2005 s.1). Their own consent is normally sought, with parental involvement where clinically appropriate and respecting their confidentiality.

Anyone aged 16 or over who lacks capacity for a particular decision: we follow the Mental Capacity Act 2005, including its best-interests requirements.

The person arranging and paying for care is not automatically the person who consents to it, and paying for treatment does not give access to another person's clinical records.

7. Session Recording and Digital Tools

Recording. We record sessions as standard. It lets the practitioner give full attention to you or your child during the session rather than to note-taking, and it makes the clinical record more accurate. Recording is still your choice: you opt in on the consent form, and you may decline or withdraw at any time without it affecting your care. We rely on your consent for this (UK GDPR Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a)). Withdrawal stops further recording; it does not undo processing already lawfully carried out. Where an existing recording forms part of the clinical record we will explain why it is retained and for how long.

AI-assisted tools. We use AI and digital tools as part of standard clinical workflows, including note-taking, assessment reporting and document preparation. All outputs are reviewed by the practitioner, who retains full clinical responsibility. Client data processed through these tools is not used to train third-party models.

You may ask at any time how your data is processed in connection with any technology used in your care. The Privacy Notice sets out the detail.

8. Online Sessions

For video sessions, please ensure a stable connection, a private environment, and a working camera and microphone.

If a session is disrupted, the practitioner will try to reconnect. If it cannot continue, the remaining time is rescheduled or the session concluded by agreement. Where disruption prevents us delivering a session, we will agree how to complete it or refund the undelivered part.

We select platforms with appropriate security and remain responsible for our own obligations, including data protection, in choosing and using them.

Please do not record a session without the practitioner's prior written agreement.

9. Client Responsibilities

Please arrive on time and in a suitable state for the session. Following agreed strategies between sessions supports progress.

10. Safeguarding

Where concerns arise about a client's or child's safety, mental health, capacity to take part, or wellbeing, the practitioner may recommend additional support, medical review, or referral. We may pause or discontinue sessions where continuing would be unsafe or inappropriate.

11. Cooling-Off Period

Where you book at a distance — online or by telephone — or away from our premises, you may cancel within 14 days of the day the agreement is made, without giving a reason. Tell us by any clear statement, including email; a cancellation form is available on request but you do not have to use it.

Sessions booked inside the 14 days. If your appointment falls within that period, you are asking us to begin before the period ends. By paying the session fee for an appointment scheduled within 14 days of booking, you expressly request that we start then, and you accept that if you later cancel you will pay for what has already been provided. If you would rather not do that, please book a date more than 14 days ahead, or tell us and we will hold the appointment without taking payment.

If you cancel during the 14 days, you pay a proportionate amount for any session already delivered, and nothing for sessions not yet provided. You lose the right to cancel entirely only where the service has been fully performed after such a request — a single appointment does not fully perform an agreed course of sessions.

We refund the balance within 14 days of being told you are cancelling, by the original payment method unless we agree otherwise. The Section 3 cancellation charges do not apply to cancellations made under this statutory right.

12. Termination

Either party may end this agreement by giving written notice.

Where an agreed plan turns out to be unsuitable or difficult to follow, we will discuss the barriers, reasonable adjustments and alternatives — declining a recommendation is your right and is not itself a reason to end care. We may end care where it can no longer safely or appropriately continue, or for serious or repeated matters such as non-payment or abusive behaviour. We will explain why, give reasonable notice where it is safe to do so, and provide discharge information and onward referral or signposting. Immediate suspension may occasionally be necessary to keep someone safe.

Unused advance payments are refunded within 14 days, less any charges properly due under these terms.

13. Our Responsibility to You

We provide our services with reasonable care and skill. Outcomes vary between individuals and cannot be guaranteed.

We are responsible for loss or damage that is a foreseeable result of our breach of contract or our negligence. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded — including your statutory rights as a consumer.

Incomplete or withheld information, or difficulty following an agreed plan, may affect treatment and its outcome. What that means for legal responsibility depends on the circumstances.

Lifespan Nutrition Ltd maintains professional indemnity arrangements appropriate to the services provided.

14. Intellectual Property

Reports and letters about you or your child are yours. You may copy and share them for your care, your child's education support, insurance, legal advice or a complaint.

Generic resources, programmes, templates and teaching materials remain the intellectual property of Lifespan Nutrition Ltd or the practitioner who created them, and are for your personal use — please do not reproduce or distribute them commercially without written permission.

15. Complaints

Please tell us if something is wrong. You can raise it with the practitioner during a session, but you do not have to — you may complain directly to Lifespan Nutrition Ltd, verbally or in writing, at enquiries@lifespan-nutrition.co.uk. We acknowledge complaints within 5 working days and aim to give a substantive response within 20 working days, explaining any delay. Complaining will not affect the care you receive.

If something goes wrong with your care, we will tell you what happened and its likely effects, apologise, and discuss what can be done about it.

You may also raise concerns about Dr Bujtor's fitness to practise with the Health and Care Professions Council at any time, without complaining to us first. The HCPC considers whether a registrant is fit to practise; it does not award compensation or settle fee disputes.

Where your treatment is insurer-funded, your insurer will also have its own complaints process.

16. Force Majeure

Where circumstances beyond our reasonable control prevent us delivering a session — illness, severe weather, technology failure, government action — we will tell you promptly and offer rescheduling or a refund for what has not been delivered. This does not exclude responsibility for our own negligence or failure to take reasonable precautions.

17. General Provisions

Changes to terms. We may update these terms. Revised terms apply to bookings made after we have given them to you; changes affecting an existing booking or prepaid block need your agreement.

Severability. If any provision is found invalid, the rest continue in full force.

The agreement. These terms, your booking confirmation and the agreed plan of care form the agreement between us. Nothing here excludes statements we have made that are legally binding, or liability for misrepresentation.

Third-party rights. Where the client receiving care is not the person contracting with us, that client may enforce the provisions of these terms that concern their care. Otherwise no third party has rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

Governing law. The law of England and Wales applies. This does not remove any mandatory consumer protection available to you, and you may bring proceedings in any court available to you under applicable law.

Contact. Email enquiries@lifespan-nutrition.co.uk; please allow up to 48 hours for non-urgent replies. We do not provide emergency services — for urgent matters contact your GP, NHS 111, or the emergency services.

The confirmation-of-consent and contact-preference choices referred to above are made on the intake form you complete when you book, not on this page. Ask us for a copy at any time.