What should be included in a radiography preceptorship?

The following section signposts to relevant preceptorship guidance and resources which may be helpful when seeking to develop a new, or enhance an existing, preceptorship programme; This includes further SoR/CoR recommendations and mapping resources:

National AHP Preceptorship Principles and Frameworks

The College of Radiographers (CoR) has collaborated with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), NHS England and other AHP professional bodies on a range of national AHP preceptorship guidance documents and resources. 

This included supporting the development of the HCPC’s Principles for Preceptorship and NHS England’s, National Allied Health Professionals Preceptorship and Foundation Support Programme (NHS England, 2022), to ensure their suitability and relevance for the radiography workforce.  

The CoR therefore supports and encourages the implementation of these principles, frameworks and resources into practice.   

Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Principles for Preceptorship

The HCPC’s Principles for Preceptorship outline 5 core principles for preceptorships with guiding statements under the following themes:

1. Organisational culture and preceptorship
2. Quality and oversight of preceptorship
3. Preceptee empowerment
4. Preceptor role
5. Delivering preceptorship programmes.

These principles bring the Allied Health Professions in line with the principles currently outlined by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2022) and build on the guidance previously developed by the Department of Health (2010).

The Principles for Preceptorship offer multi-professional guidance on the core elements and principles that should be embedded within any preceptorship programme. They are not specific to an individual professional group; however, the College of Radiographers supports their use and implementation into practice, having fed into their development in collaboration with the HCPC, NHSE and other AHP professional Bodies.  The principles should be used as a guide by anyone establishing or delivering a preceptorship programme to ensure the programme will meet the needs of HCPC-registered preceptees.

Elements of the principles, also support profession-specific considerations.

These include:

Principle 2, b: Under ‘Quality and oversight of preceptorship’, employers are guided to consider that processes are in place to support ‘an appropriate mix of profession-specific and multi-profession learning and development’.

Principle 4, d: Under ‘Preceptor role’, preceptors are guided to ‘support preceptees to engage with their wider profession’

Principle 5, c: Under ‘Delivering preceptorship programmes’, employers are guided to ‘have flexibility to deliver common themes of preceptorship in a multi-professional way while ensuring profession specific elements are provided where necessary[KW1] ’.

For radiography, the CoR Education and Career Framework can be a supporting resource when seeking to tailor a preceptorship programme to the needs of the individual at all levels of practice.  The ECF may act as a career progression roadmap, enabling practitioners to undertake a reflective learning needs analysis to determine areas where they would benefit from further development, support and/or learning. [KW2] See XXXXX for more details on ECF mapping tools.

National Allied Health Professionals Preceptorship and Foundation Support Programme

‘The National AHP Preceptorship and Foundation Support Programme has been established to ensure that AHPs receive high quality preceptorship and foundation support as they transition into employment’.(NHSE 2022) 

The programme sought to standardise the quality of preceptorship programmes and ongoing foundation support available to AHPs, to support alignment with the government's NHS Long Term Workforce Plan to retain, upskill and maximise the potential of the workforce.  

The programme recognised that the transition of newly qualified practitioners, specifically, begins before qualification and continues beyond their first year of practice and preceptorship.

The NHSE programme was therefore structured around the three phases of:

1. Pre-preceptorship
2. Preceptorship and
3. Foundation support.

The three phases are explained in the context of radiography below:

1. Pre-preceptorship- A period of preparation to support transition towards employment, which may apply to radiography students/learners, radiography practitioners returning to practice, or internationally recruited radiographers.

In 2023 NHS long term workforce plan set about to improve student and learner experience. One way in which this can be achieved is through adopting a proactive approach to pre-preceptorship.

Pre-preceptorship recognises there are responsibilities for the individual, service/employers, as well as for education providers:

The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Pre-preceptorship – supporting transition to the workforcereport details practical recommendations for learners/newly qualified practitioners, education providers, and employers to support career transition and retention. 

Several common themes were identified as being key in supporting effective transitioning into employment:

• Feeling of belonging and confidence
• Preparedness for practice
• Career Progression
• Employment pathways
• Financial concerns
• Caring responsibilities
• Discrimination

In radiography, employers and senior radiography staff, such as radiology service managers, practice educators, advanced and consultant radiography practitioners, are encouraged to work collaboratively with education providers that offer pre-registration courses in radiography, to support transition through pre-preceptorship into preceptorship for newly qualified practitioners. 

Education providers are encouraged to familiarise learners with the concepts of pre-preceptorship and preceptorship early on in their studies.  Signposting to professional and regulatory body guidance and policies on professional practice, career progression and continuing professional development is recommended in preparing learners for employment.  

As part of the CoR programme approval process and the CoR Quality Standards for Practice Placement, education providers are encouraged to build close working relationships with their practice partners to ensure the quality of practice placement learning and learner experience. The relationships and connections made through the delivery of practice placements can help to facilitate wider opportunities for pre-preceptorship activities.  This is also recommended in the AHP Pre-preceptorship-supporting transition to workforce report, which encourages joint working between education providers and employers around practice placement opportunities and employability activities.  This may include employers visiting learners on campus to explain recruitment processes and expectations for newly qualified practitioners, or employer/practice involvement in interview skills sessions.

Other recommendations for pre-preceptorship include signposting to job opportunities, key contacts and other relevant information, developing buddy schemes, and maintaining communication links between providers and learners.

The report also provides links to various resources that can be used during the pre-preceptorship period.  These include:

• Step to Work - elearning for healthcare
• Pre-preceptorship Toolkit | NHS England | Workforce, training and education
• NHS England Futures Collaboration platform on recruitment
• NHSE Guide to Practice-Based Learning (PBL) for Neurodivergent Students
• Guidance and resources within the Safe Learning Environment Charter

Pre-preceptorship for non-newly qualified practitioners

In radiography, for practitioners embarking on a period of preceptorship from another route other than a pre-registration programme, such as returning to practice following a period of absence or as an internationally recruited practitioner, it is important that employers also consider this pre-preceptorship period prior to employment.   

Although the scoping, research and recommendations outlined in the AHP Pre-preceptorship-supporting transition to workforce report focus on the newly qualified practitioner, some elements can also be applied to those preparing for other career transitions in radiography.

General support may include supporting the individual through clear communication on when and what to expect during their return or transition into the organisation, sharing details and plans on what their subsequent preceptorship period may look like and addressing any practical issues or queries that the practitioner may have.

Further information and SoR guidance on international recruitment in radiography may be found here. 

SoR information on returning to practice may be found here.  Additional returning to practice information is available on the HCPC website here.  

2. Preceptorship– As explained in the previous sections, preceptorship is a period of structured support and development during periods of career transition, where the radiography practitioner will be supported to grow in confidence as an autonomous and accountable practitioner.

Central to the Preceptorship vein of the NHS England work was the development of the Allied Health Professional (AHP) Preceptorship Standards and Framework.  This work and supporting resources were developed in collaboration with the College of Radiographers and other AHP professional bodies.

This project details preceptorship standards for AHPs (including radiographers), alongside an implementation framework to support integration into practice. An AHP Preceptorship Toolkit, comprising of various supporting resources, templates and checklists is also available.  

In England employers/preceptors/preceptees should be use the Standards and Framework in conjunction with the HCPC’s Principles for Preceptorship. 

Similarly, for those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland consideration of the NHSE AHP Preceptorship Standards and Framework and associated resources is encouraged.  Other potentially relevant devolved preceptorship frameworks are available and should also be considered in conjunction with the HCPC Principles for Preceptorship when developing a new or enhancing and existing, preceptorship programme.  These include:

Scotland: Flying Start NHS Programme: A multiprofessional preceptorship framework for newly qualified nurses, midwives and allied health professionals.

Further information on preceptorship is also available on the TURAS platform, which although is for nursing and midwifery, it is under review for adaptation for use by allied health professions.

Wales: NHS Wales Healthcare Science Career Framework (2025): Applicable to healthcare science professions, of which radiography is included.

A new Supervision Hub: Enhancing Care Through Support and Growth (HEIW 2025): Inspired by the A-EQUIP model, the hub provides resources and information, sign-posting to policies and guidelines aimed at fostering professional development and resilience through enhancing supervision practice across the healthcare workforce.

The All Wales Preceptorship Guidelines for newly appointed ward sisters/ charge nurses,although nursing-specific, may also be useful when considering preceptorship in radiography.

Northern Ireland:

As for Wales, there is no specific guidance on preceptorships for allied health professions, however the Department of Health (2022) Northern Ireland Preceptorship Framework for Nursing and Midwifery reflects the NMC Principles for Preceptorship, which align in various ways with the HCPC Principles for Preceptorship and NHSE AHP Preceptorship Standards and Framework.

Further support may be available through the HSC Clinical Education Centre where a range of learning is available and preceptorship programmes are established for nursing and midwifery colleagues.

 Preceptorship :: Northern Care Alliance

Guidance for NHS Employers:

The NHS employers provides guidance on preceptorships for newly qualified staff.

The NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook also refers to a period of preceptorship for the first 12 months of a clinician employed at the bottom of Band 5 on the Agenda for Change payscale. This banding applies to newly qualified speech and language therapists. Please see Part 2, section 1.8– Pay,  for more information.

Guidance for employers from other sectors and for Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice: Whilst there is no specific guidance for employers from other sectors, The RCSLT recommends that any speech and language therapist new to practice is supported through a preceptorship in line with the HCPC principles and the additional guidance given here.

Private/ Independent Sector

Concerning independent practice, The Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent practice provides guidance on membership which highlights minimum standards expected of members. This includes successful completion of at least one post graduate year of practice (referred to as a ‘probationary’ year). In addition, full membership is only granted to therapist who have two recent and consecutive years of post-graduate practice (ASLTIP, 2023).

For further information or for answers to any queries on preceptorship please contact [email protected]

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Other relevant information on preceptorship is found throughout this web resource, explaining what preceptorship is in the context of radiography, who is involved and profession-specific considerations in relation to the national guidance available.

3. Foundation Support -A matrix of opportunities for professional and personal development for radiographers that support upskilling across the four pillars of practice, while simultaneously supporting the development of a diverse workforce fit for the future.

As a practitioner approaches the end of their preceptorship period, and enters the foundation support stage, employers are encouraged to develop a range of ongoing learning and development opportunities across the four pillars of practice for preceptees to have opportunities to build on the learning and experiences gained throughout their preceptorship.  Depending on the needs of the individual practitioner, their level of practice, role, and service needs, this may include inhouse training and development and/or more formal learning opportunities through credit bearing qualifications from recognised education providers.

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