The House of Commons health committee published their report on 2014 Accountability hearing with the Health and Care Professions Council

The Report has raised the issue about statutory registration and has certainly confirmed that this should be possible for those professions that demonstrate that statutory regulation would be appropriate on grounds of patient safety.
Decisions about whether to extend statutory regulation to different professions need
to be informed both by considerations of issues of patient safety, and consideration
of the evidence base for that profession. We do not seek to make judgements on
either of these factors for individual professions, and, although as the HCPC has
pointed out that health and care regulation is not currently “a very logical
landscape”, at this stage we are not seeking to make recommendations for change
simply to address inconsistencies. However, if there are unregulated groups which
need to be regulated on the grounds of patient safety, this should be dealt with
swiftly. (Paragraph 73)

HCPC, in its former position as HPC, did support the professional view that VRCT members should be regulated on the grounds of Patient Safety

Recommendation 12 of the report includes that

We recommend that, in responding to this report, the HCPC lists any professional groups for which they feel there is a compelling patient safety case for statutory regulation so that we can take this further with the Department of Health as a matter of urgency.

It is hoped that HCPC will be able to action this recommendation for the VRCT professional groups and those of the other professions that were part of the same aspirant grouping.

See Report

The VRCT Management panel agreed at its meeting on 27 March to recommend to the Professional Standards Council of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine that it makes an application to Professional Standards Authority to become an AVR and the preparatory work for this is underway.

Find out more about Accredited Voluntary Registers and what they mean

IPEM Position Statement on VRCT
IPEM have issue a position statement on the VRCT to clarify the position moving on towards VRCT potentially becoming an assured register read more ……

Changes to VRCT governance
‘The Voluntary Register of Clinical Technologists has a new partner assisting in its management. The Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estates Management (IHEEM) has recently signed an MoU with IPEM to support the Register and its aims – including the continuing drive to achieve statutory registration for clinical technologists. IHEEM joins IPEM and the Association of Renal Technologists (ART) as a partner in the running of the Register, with two members from each body sitting on the Management Panel alongside the Registrar, Assistant Registrar and two elected Registrant representatives. The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), one of the original partners in the running of the VRCT, has recently withdrawn from this role.

“Membership of the Register is an important way for healthcare engineers to demonstrate their professional competence and values”, said Greg Markham, President of IHEEM. “We are delighted to be able to contribute to the future of this well-established and well-recognised Register for clinical technologists.”

VRCT Registrar Andy Mosson said: “IHEEM is a very welcome partner for the VRCT, and I look forward to working with our new colleagues on the Management Panel.”

David Gandy, chair of ART endorsed the comments and said “I am looking forward to the new members that IHEEM will bring to the VRCT and wonder if we will see the membership grow.”

The VRCT Management Panel had previously voted unanimously to integrate the Register fully into IPEM, with immediate effect, at its meeting on 11 September 2013. This move was intended to enable the Register to apply for Accredited Voluntary Register (AVR) status, which the Government regards as an essential step prior to any further consideration of statutory regulation. ‘

4th April 2014 VRCT Management Panel