Author: Charlotte Beardmore, Director of Professional Policy
Work continues at pace in the development of apprenticeship standards for radiography in England.
College officers are engaged in a number of workstreams, covering mammography, sonography, advanced practice as well as diagnostic and therapeutic radiography.
We are also working closely with the Health and Social Care Professions Education Leads group (mainly the AHP professional bodies), to develop a common approach for standard development and a mechanism for provision of professional body approval for apprenticeships leading to registration with the HCPC.
Mammography
Full details of the progress being made towards the mammography standard can be found here.
Radiography - Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ) level 6 (England)
An expression of interest (EOI) was approved by the Institute of Apprenticeships (IoA) earlier this year to support development of a joint degree level standard.
Following the first meeting of the trailblazer group earlier this year, it was agreed by the employer leads, with our input, that separate standards would be beneficial for diagnostic radiography and therapeutic radiography, rather than a core set of shared standards.
We have worked with the trailblazer lead for the therapeutic radiographer apprenticeship in resubmitting a new EOI plus development of a draft standard to demonstrate that diagnostic and therapeutic radiography are separate and distinct professions, and not specialisms.
The EOI for therapeutic radiography was submitted at the end of August and consultation ran for two weeks. We understand that the diagnostic radiography EOI will be submitted at the next round, which was due imminently as we go to press.
If approved for standard develoment, both will be degree level apprenticeships (Level 6), meeting HCPC standards of proficiency and the CoR learning outcomes defined within the Education Career Framework.
Sonography - proposed draft standard is Level 6
We understand this will be level 6 with the first public consultation expected imminently. We will alert members to this consultation via the website and will be formally responding.
Advanced Clinical Practice – Master's Level 7
The final consultation on this standard through the IoA closed this month. If approved by the IoA, work on the End Point Assessment (EPA) will be progressed. We will need to understand how this may fit with our advanced practice roles, and how education programmes may need to be re-aligned to fit the standard, and if service and education providers will respond to this. Further details will be available on the SoR website.