14 NEWS SYNERGY NEWS FEBRUARY 2014 www.sor.org Assistant practitioner accreditation


which is held by the SoR. Non-members wishing to become accredited and be listed on the register can pay an accreditation fee. More details can be found on the SoR website at bit. ly/19whYSD. There are two routes


From 1 January this year all assistant practitioners (APs) applying for accreditation must do so through CPD Now. The process of completing the application and submitting it couldn’t be easier as Sohnia Gill, an AP working at the Jarvis Breast Centre in Guildford, found out just before Christmas. “I thought it would be harder than it was” Sohnia told Louise Coleman, professional officer for education and


accreditation. “The AP accreditation process and CPD Now were really simple to use.” Those APs who were in SoR membership before 1 January 2014 have until 30 September 2014 to complete their accreditation. If accreditation is not completed by then, their level of membership will change to radiographic assistant. The indemnity insurance arrangements for radiographic assistant are not sufficient to cover


the range of practice and clinical responsibilities of the assistant practitioner so accreditation is vital to maintain appropriate insurance.


New members will have to achieve accreditation before they can be given assistant practitioner membership status. They will join as a radiographic assistant. All APs who achieve accreditation will be added to the public voluntary register of assistant practitioners


to AP accreditation: • The approved course route for those who have completed a programme of education that has been approved by the College of Radiographers. • The experiential route for those who have not completed an Approved programme. Applicants will need to evidence how they are working to their scope of practice by submitting at least six pieces of CPD evidence via CPD Now. CPD Now guides applicants through the process and contains a list of all College of Radiographers approved courses.


All applicants have to


provide the names of two attestors who will be asked to confirm that they are working according to their scope of practice


Sonography professional registration: New advice for employers


NHS Employers has published new advice for employers which asks them to carefully consider their registration requirements when recruiting to sonographer vacancies. The guidance explains


the current registration arrangements for sonographers and encourages employers to widen their pool of


applicants by removing any pre-application filtering questions regarding registration. “We were alerted to the fact that some sonographer members were having problems making applications for posts via the NHS Jobs website,” explains SoR professional officer Nigel Thomson. “Many of the online forms asked whether the applicant


was statutorily registered. If ‘No’ was selected, then the application could not proceed and there was no facility to provide any explanation as to why statutory registration might not be held. “We asked them


to provide advice, based on the SoR document Ultrasound Training, Employment and Registration.” (bit.ly/ LSA2w0).


The new guidance states:


‘We would urge employers to consider that for some otherwise well qualified sonographers who have trained from different professional backgrounds where regulation doesn’t exist, trained overseas, or who are direct entrants into sonography training, statutory regulation is not possible.


‘By insisting on statutory registration you could


be reducing your pool of candidates, exacerbating recruitment challenges with this group of staff, given there is currently a national skills shortage of sonographers’.


The guidance goes to discuss the role of the Public Voluntary Register of Sonographers which is administered by the CoR. View the guidance at


bit.ly/1bQvlw4 and bit. ly/1aH0cdV


and to provide feedback to the applicant. CPD Now facilitates attestor access to applicants’ accreditation application only. They will not have access to the full CPD record. Attestors must be registered healthcare professionals (HCPC, GMC, NMC, etc). Accreditation lasts for


two years. In order to be re-accredited APs must complete 12 pieces of CPD evidence within CPD Now over the course of the two years. This evidence must be related to their scope of practice. They must also re-confirm their scope of practice and get attestor feedback as before.


Sohnia and other APs are finding out that accreditation isn’t hard or onerous. There aren’t any paper forms to fill out and CPD Now guides applicants through the process. As Sohnia said, the processes of accreditation is “really easy.”


For further information, visit bit.ly/19whYSD.


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