A reminder that the CPD Audit process begins in March when a random selection of registrants will be identified for this year’s audit. Those who have been selected for audit will be requested to submit their CPD Summary by email within 28 days. To make the process easier, there are forms and guidance notes on the RCT website to help you to do this. Remember  that it is a condition of your registration that you maintain adequate CPD and submit records when requested. This ensures that you remain up to date with current developments and good practice within your profession. You should maintain your CPD records throughout the year, which will be a benefit if you are selected for audit, as it will make the process easier for you. If you would like any advice on the audit, please contact enquiries@therct.org.uk.

Leaflet, poster and departmental certificate

Our leaflet – Information for patients and the public – has recently been updated. The leaflet provides vital information to patients and increases public awareness of the register.  We have also produced a poster and departmental certificate to display alongside them. We would encourage you to request copies for display in your department by emailing enquiries@therct.org.uk.

In the coming months we will be introducing a column on the RCT online register to show the Scope of Practice each Registrant is registered under. In order to do this, we will be contacting each Registrant to ask you to confirm which Scope of Practice you are registered under. Please look out for our communication and respond as soon as you can, to enable us to update this functionality effectively.

We encourage applications from those who have trained and worked overseas and are now working in the UK, and the launch of the Equivalence Routes directly supports such applicants. Equivalence is intended as a route to registration for anyone who is working within one of the RCT scopes of practice and does not have access to either of the primary routes to registration. Anyone who has a relevant qualification and can demonstrate they meet the equivalence criteria can apply to join the RCT via this route.

You should be aware that you must inform the RCT management panel when you intend to take a career break. A career break involves a registrant taking an extended period of unpaid time away from their work and returning to work in the same Scope of Practice.  You must also tell us if you are intending to make a career change. A career change involves a registrant taking time away from their current Scope of Practice to undertake further training and development (which may be paid or unpaid), before returning to work in a different Scope of Practice. To notify us of your intention to take a career break or undertake a career change, please read the policy on the RCT website before completing the notification form, at least 1 month before the proposed start date of the career break or career change and sending it to us.

After the annual renewal process this year, some registrants were removed from the register for non-payment. This may be because of forgetfulness; however setting up a direct debit would avoid this! You can set up a direct debit at any time – the application form is available from the RCT website. Just complete and email or post this back to us.

The equivalence route for registration is an area which is expanding and we are looking to add to our team of assessors to cover future needs. If you believe that you have the skills to assess technical portfolios we would love to hear from you. We are planning a training day for new and existing assessors soon, so if you would like to get involved this is the perfect time. Please email us a copy of your CV and we will be in touch soon.

Meetings planned for 2017 are:

Tuesday 6 June 2017, at Fairmount House, 230 Tadcaster Road, York, YO24 1ES

Thursday 19 October 2017, at Fairmount House, 230 Tadcaster Road, York, YO24 1ES

Summary minutes from the February 2017 meeting can now be found on the RCT website

The RCT Registrar

RCT Registrar, Andy Mosson, recently stepped down from the role after three years in post. He has steered the RCT through some major changes over the last few years and the RCT management panel is extremely grateful for all of his hard work and dedication.  In accordance with its Terms of Reference, the management panel has voted to elect a new Registrar from amongst its members, and the outcome is that I have been elected to that role, having previously been Assistant Registrar and before that, one of the IHEEM representatives. I am very much looking forward to taking on this role and continuing the excellent work undertaken by my predecessor. Andy has kindly agreed to stand for election as Assistant Registrar, thus providing a continuity of knowledge whilst the changes take place, and he was subsequently elected to this position by the panel.     

Iain Threlkeld

Updated RCT CPD Policy

The RCT policy on Continued Professional Development has recently been updated and is available to download from the RCT website. Please ensure that you read the policy as it applies to all CPD activity from 2016 onwards. In particular there are penalties for not producing CPD evidence when requested to do so at audit – with removal from the Register being the most severe. We want to help you to be successful with your CPD audit, so please do submit your portfolio when asked: this gives you time to get help and support for a re-submission if necessary, and avoids the most severe penalties.

Renewal fees for 2017

The annual renewal fee for 2017 will be £18.00, an increase of only 50p. The increase has been kept to a minimum, but is necessary to cover costs incurred by implementing the CPD audit, renewing PSA accreditation and increasing general costs.

Application fees have not been increased.

Being on the PSA-accredited Register of Clinical Technologists is a personal achievement and an indication of professional standing, which deserves recognition by employers and patients. With the permission of the PSA,  the management panel has agreed that Registrants can now use the post nominal letters ‘RCT’ to signify that they are on the Register.  All Registrants can now use ‘RCT’ after their name for the duration of their registration. Should your registration lapse through non-payment, or if you are removed from the Register for disciplinary reasons, then you must cease using the post-nominal letters immediately.

We are extremely pleased to report that we were successful in gaining PSA re-accreditation for another year. We were deemed to have met the PSA’s standards for re-accreditation for a second year. The Register was praised by the PSA for the work undertaken in its first year as an Accredited Register.

The whole process begins again next March for re-accreditation in September 2017.

We have recently welcomed two new members to the RCT management panel.

Ian Wilde is the Technical Service Manager at the Manchester Royal Infirmary dialysis unit and he joins us as a representative of the Association of Renal Technologists.

Shaun Lundy is Clinical Engineering Team Leader at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. He is a Member of IHEEM, registered with the RCT and also with the Engineering Council as an Engineering Technician. He is the panel’s second IHEEM representative.

We would like to extend a warm welcome to both and look forward to their valuable input into the RCT panel.

The RCT Registrar

Thank you to those of you who took part in the ballot to elect two new registrant representatives to the RCT’s Management Panel this year. It was pleasing to note that 30% of registrants voted in the ballot; previously this had been 16%. The Management Panel makes all the important decisions about the running of the register, so it is important that you have your say in who represents you on it.

I am sure you will join me in welcoming to the Management Panel your chosen registrant representatives:-

Elizabeth Crawford, is a Specialist Technologist within the Radiological Physics department of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and is keen to see entry routes into all technologist professions clarified, so that new starters can identify a clear career path and, ultimately, work towards registration as a respected and recognised member of the Healthcare Science community.

David Donohue,  is a Chief Clinical Technologist at South Tyneside Hospital. The Clinical Technologist profession is important to David and he believes a strong professional organisation and regulation is important for growth, development and security.

We were also delighted to welcome Rosemary Anderton and Phil Goddard, our two lay representatives, to their first meeting of the Management Panel in February.

Did you know that you can check your registration details on the RCT register? Click search register and type in your surname or registration number. If you have moved work location and would like this amended, please send an email to enquiries@therct.org.uk.

The former disciplinary procedure has been updated and renamed the Fitness to Practise procedure, to take account of issues which may be reported to the RCT involving either a registrant’s health (which is not a disciplinary issue), or his/her conduct (which may be).  The other main changes that have taken place involve the decision to make hearings routinely open to the public (which is usual practice for statutory registers); changes to the composition of the appeals panel; and clarification of the process for handling potential complaints that come to light via news or social media sources rather than by individual complaints.

The revised Fitness to Practise procedure, which was approved by the RCT Management Panel at its February meeting, can be found on the RCT website.

The Physics Standards for the Equivalence Route have now been finalised and this route is currently being piloted. Once the pilot has been completed, the route will be formally launched and the relevant information will be added to the RCT website. If you think that you may be eligible to apply via the Physics Equivalence route and would like us to contact you once the route is launched, email enquiries@therct.org.uk with your name, email address, telephone number, work location and the Scope of Practice you are working under.

All Registrants are required to keep up to date with their CPD and be able to demonstrate that they are doing so. Further information has been added to the RCT website to help you to maintain your CPD record. This information includes potential CPD activities, together with example submissions from a Rehabilitation Engineer, Radiotherapy Technologist and a Nuclear Medicine Technologist, to help you prepare your own portfolio. This year’s CPD audit takes place in May, and we will be contacting a random sample of registrants in March to ask for a summary of their CPD record.

·      Publicising YOUR register

Don’t forget you can put under your email signature that you are a member of an Accredited Register, plus this logo:

We also have a leaflet available for you to put out in your Department to let patients know about the RCT – which helps to highlight to your employer that you are a registered professional. Email enquiries@therct.org.uk if you would like us to send you some hard copies. If you have already requested copies, and have not yet received them, please be assured that they will be with you as soon as possible.

The equivalence route for registration is an area where we are expecting growth and we are looking to expand the team of assessors to cover future needs. If you believe that you have the skills to assess technical portfolios we would like to hear from you.  We are planning a training day for new and existing assessors in Q2 of 2016.

CPD Assessors required

Would you like to get involved in the Register of Technologists, and do you have an interest in continuing professional development? We are looking to expand the assessor pool this year and it is a great opportunity to expand your own professional development.  Please do get in touch if this is something that you feel would be beneficial.  It is likely that training will take place on 17^th or 18^th May 2016 with the opportunity to include assessment.

A new field has been added to the register to provide the public with further assurance of your registration status and to bring the register in line with other voluntary and statutory registers.   The status fields are:-

–      Registered – this means that the registrant is currently registered with no current finding or cautions

–      Registered finding – this means that the registrant has had been found to have a minor concern within the last 5 years

–      Registered caution – this means that the registrant has had a written reprimand placed on them within the last 5 years

–      Deregistered suspension conduct – this means that the registrant has been temporarily suspended due to a conduct related issue

–      Deregistered suspension health – this means that the registrant has been temporarily suspended due to a health related issue

–      Deregistered – this means that the registrant has been expelled from the Register.

Where there has been a ‘Fitness to Practice’ (previously called ‘disciplinary’) hearing involving a registrant, a summary of the case will appear on the website, in line with best practice of other voluntary and statutory registers, and there will be a link from the register page to this page. This is so that the public can be assured that the individual has been appropriately investigated in order to protect patient safety, and can see why they have been cautioned or deregistered.

The summary minutes of the RCTMP held on 10^th February 2016 are available via the RCT website. This enables Registrants to keep up with the discussions and decisions being made on their behalf.

The career break policy has been developed to enable Registrants to take an extended period of unpaid time away from work in order to balance their career with other commitments, responsibilities and interest.

Registrants who are planning to take a career break are required to notify the Registrar and will be removed upon commencement of their break. If you are taking a career break, please complete the relevant form which is available on the RCT website and forward this to the Registrar at least one month prior to the commencement of your career break. The full policy can be found here.

The RCT Registrar

Lay membership of RCTMP

As part of the RCT’s successful application for Accredited Register status, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has placed a requirement on the RCT to recruit lay members to join the Management Panel. All other bodies involved in professional regulation have lay members on their main Boards, in many cases forming a majority of members.  Lay members of the Panel will be full members of the Panel, working under the Terms of Reference, entitled to vote and forming part of the quorum of the meeting. They will bring an external perspective to the work of the Management Panel, helping to maintain focus on the key purpose of the RCT, to protect the public by settings standards for the training, practice and conduct of registrants.  The Management Panel appointed two lay members to its membership at its October meeting. We welcome Phil Goddard: a consultant with many years’ experience in the energy sector, including R&D, product and process development, training and project management; and Rosemary Anderton, a science and psychology teacher, with an MSc in Health Care Ethics, to the panel in this capacity. They will attend their first Panel meeting in February. In the meantime they will be visiting the clinical engineering and nuclear medicine departments at Bradford Royal Infirmary at the invitation of Panel member Iain Threlkeld, to learn more about the work of clinical technologists.

The summary minutes of the RCTMP held on 14^th October 2015 are available via the RCT website. This enables Registrants to keep up with the discussions and decisions being made on their behalf.

Public attendance at Panel meetings

In line with best practice, the RCT Management Panel has agreed to maximise the transparency of its work by allowing any member of the public to attend its meetings in an observation capacity.  The future dates will be published in advance of the meeting on the RCT website and any member of the public wishing to attend should notify the Administration Manager.  A maximum of 6 members of the public will be allowed to observe the open proceedings; there may be a requirement for a closed session as part the meeting.

The RCTMP is keen to ensure the draft standards are piloted and welcome interest from registrants who would like to lead the process for Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy Physics.  The panel will also be looking for pilot applicants from its waiting list.  If there is a colleague who you think may be interested please ask them to get in touch at enquiries@therect.org.uk

The costs of running the RCT have been increasing steadily, and now include the costs of the annual CPD audit, of assessor training and of PSA accreditation. So with effect from 1^st January 2016 the renewal fee for Registrants will be increased to £17.50.  Whilst increases in fees are never welcome, it is worth remembering that:

·       renewal fees have not risen for 15 years

·       the new fee is set to just cover costs, and no more

·       the RCT is now an Accredited Register, increasing its status with the NHS

·       other registers charge considerably more:

o   AHCS register – £50/year

o   HCPC – £90

Registrants sometimes ask: “But what do I get for my registration fee?” It is important to remember that any register only provides registration, indicating achievement of standards. Registrants don’t get anything more than this ‘quality mark’ of their practice. That’s why the RCT encourages registrants to join a professional body as well, in order to get member benefits, support and opportunities.

In 2013, the Professional Conduct Committee of the RCT suspended a registrant for five years for abuse of social media. To assist registrants, the RCT Management Panel has approved a set of guidelines for the use of social media.  The guidelines are intended to make RCT registrants aware of the positive and negative impact that their social media use can have, and give guidance on appropriate use of social media. The Guidelines should be read alongside the RCT Code of Professional Conduct.

Don’t miss out on the easy way to renew your registration – set up a Direct Debit and make sure your registration doesn’t lapse. Download the form here.

We have received six applications for the two recently advertised Registrant Representative posts on the RCTMP. A ballot is being conducted involving all RCT Registrants and an email has been sent to you with voting instructions. The ballot is being conducted via SurveyMonkey and will close on Friday 27^th November 2015, so don’t delay in casting your vote. The results will be communicated to all Registrants in due course.

The RCT Registrar