Eczema support in the UK splits into two halves that work differently. One is the NHS clinical route, which begins at a GP and has no other entrance. The other is a short list of national organisations that cover the ground between appointments: Eczema UK, which changed its name from the National Eczema Society; Eczema Outreach Support, for families with a child under 18; Eczema Care Online, the free self-management site a NICE guideline tells clinicians to hand out; Allergy UK, for the trigger and allergen side; and the British Association of Dermatologists, which publishes the lay-reviewed leaflets.
The NHS page on atopic eczema names two of those under "Find out more" and points at a third for triggers, but it sets out no referral criteria and no pathway. Below is the mechanism, and what each organisation gives you.
The NHS route begins at a GP, and there is no side door
Dermatology is not a self-referral service. The NHS gives sexual health clinics and A&E as the services you can go to without a referral, and says you generally cannot refer yourself to anything else (NHS, Referrals for specialist care). The trigger the NHS gives patients is plain: see a GP if "treatments are not helping your atopic eczema" (NHS, Atopic eczema).
From there the referral goes through the NHS e-Referral Service, and there are three ways it gets booked. The GP can book it during the appointment, you can book online from the appointment request letter, or you can ring the e-Referral line on 0345 608 8888. If you are referred to a specialist, you "may have the right to choose which hospital in England to go to for your first outpatient appointment", so it is worth asking at the point of referral rather than accepting the first slot offered.
Whether a particular presentation warrants that referral at all is a separate question, and it is covered in detail in when to see a dermatologist.
The guideline that sets the referral speeds covers children only
NICE CG57 is the guideline behind the referral tiers, and it sets three speeds: same day, "urgently (within 2 weeks)", and routine. The scope line matters as much as the criteria. The guideline is about "diagnosing and managing atopic eczema in children under 12" (NICE CG57), so the named triggers are written for children, and the full list is quoted in when to see a dermatologist rather than repeated here.
There is no equivalent age-banded NICE referral list for adults with atopic eczema. In practice an adult's route is the NHS wording, treatments not helping, plus the GP's own judgement about severity and how much of it has already been tried properly.
Eczema UK, which used to be the National Eczema Society
The charity states it plainly on its about page: "We have recently changed our name from the National Eczema Society." It is a "registered charity in England and Wales (Charity Commission no. 1009671), and a company limited by guarantee (no. 2685083)", and it describes 50 years of work for people affected by eczema (Eczema UK).
What it gives you is written material and events: factsheets grouped by eczema type, by treatment and by daily life, free booklets written by eczema experts, and patient webinars. Membership is a separate £25 a year in the UK and adds paper copies of its magazine Exchange, a monthly e-newsletter, an invitation to the annual general meeting and a route into its campaigning for better medical care and research (Eczema UK, membership). There is also an Expert by Experience group for people who want to shape that work. General enquiries go to 020 7281 3553 or info@eczema.org, and the office is at 82 Tanner Street, London SE1 3GN.
One practical consequence of the rename: printed and older material still uses the former name. The British Association of Dermatologists leaflet updated in August 2025 lists "National Eczema Society" with the number 020 7281 3553, which is the same line the charity gives today, so an old leaflet still reaches the right place.
Eczema Outreach Support, if the patient is a child
Eczema Outreach Support is a separate charity, registered in Scotland as SC042392 and based in Linlithgow, working across the UK (Eczema Outreach Support, contact page). It supports "young lives with eczema, from birth to 18", along with their parents and carers (Eczema Outreach Support).
The offer is different in kind from a factsheet library. It runs the High 5 Kids Club, "online peer-support for children ages 7-12 and parents/carers", lists Grab a Cuppa among its upcoming events, and provides CPD-certified training on supporting children with eczema at school or nursery. It reaches 01506 840 395 or freephone 0800 622 6018, and info@eos.org.uk. The British Association of Dermatologists lists it first among the support organisations on its atopic eczema leaflet.
Eczema Care Online, the one a guideline names
Most charity resources are optional extras. Eczema Care Online is written into NICE CG57 by name. Recommendation 1.6.1.1 asks clinicians to "provide verbal and written information (such as information from Eczema Care Online), with practical demonstrations", covering how much treatment to use, how often, and how to step it up or down. The NHS atopic eczema page lists it too.
It was developed by the University of Southampton and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research under its Programme Grants for Applied Research programme, grant reference RP-PG-0216-20007 (Eczema Care Online), with the NHS, the National Eczema Society and Eczema Outreach Support as partners. There are two tracks, one for adults managing their own eczema and one for families of children or babies.
The content is practical rather than diagnostic: the difference between flare control creams and daily moisturising creams, beating itch, sleep, stress, bathing, swimming, diet and weather, plus a two-week challenge on consistent moisturiser use and printable material. If you want the same ground compressed into an acute response, the first 48 hours of a flare covers the sequence. Since a clinician is meant to hand you Eczema Care Online anyway, opening it before the appointment leaves more of the ten minutes for the things only a clinician can do.
Allergy UK and the British Association of Dermatologists
Allergy UK is registered charity 1094231, and SC039257 in Scotland (Allergy UK). It runs a helpline on 01322 619898, says its support "extends well beyond our essential Helpline" through free specialist clinics for more complex enquiries, and publishes translation cards and an approved product directory. The NHS points at it specifically for eczema triggers, allergens and irritants, which is the boundary worth remembering: it is an allergy charity that covers eczema, not an eczema charity.
The British Association of Dermatologists publishes its patient leaflets on skinhealthinfo.org.uk. Its atopic eczema leaflet has "been assessed for readability by the British Association of Dermatologists' Patient Information Lay Review Panel", was updated in August 2025 and is next due for review in August 2028. Those two dates are the reason to prefer it over most search results: you can see how current the page is before you rely on it.
What none of them do for you
Every organisation above gives you information, and one of them gives a child's family somebody to talk to. None of them runs a dated investigation of what is driving your own eczema, because that takes weeks of individual observation rather than a leaflet. Nor does a GP appointment, which is why so much of the trigger work never happens.
That is the gap the xmahub protocol is built for, and it is designed to sit alongside NHS care rather than in place of it: the dated log it produces is the thing a short dermatology appointment can actually use. Whether a prescribed treatment should start, stop or change is a decision for your GP or dermatologist, not for a protocol or a website.
References
- NHS. Atopic eczema. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/atopic-eczema/
- NHS. Atopic eczema treatment. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/atopic-eczema/treatment/
- NHS. Referrals for specialist care. https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/hospitals/referrals-for-specialist-care/
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Atopic eczema in under 12s: diagnosis and management (CG57), 2025. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK571009/
- Eczema UK. About us. https://www.eczema.org.uk/about
- Eczema UK. Contact. https://www.eczema.org.uk/contact
- Eczema UK. Help and support. https://www.eczema.org.uk/support
- Eczema UK. Membership. https://www.eczema.org.uk/membership
- Eczema Outreach Support. https://www.eos.org.uk/
- Eczema Outreach Support. Contact us. https://www.eos.org.uk/contact-us/
- Eczema Care Online. University of Southampton and NIHR. https://eczemacareonline.org.uk/
- Allergy UK. https://www.allergyuk.org/
- British Association of Dermatologists. Atopic eczema, patient information leaflet, 2025. https://www.skinhealthinfo.org.uk/condition/atopic-eczema/