Here to support you: Charlotte Beardmore recaps the work of SoR | CoR

We hear about the relentless pressure from members, but despite this we regularly hear about the fantastic work that is happening where members are willing to push the boundaries, implement change and contribute more widely, transforming care and patient experience in the acute and community settings. The awards presented to members at the 2024 Radiography Awards in November clearly demonstrated the value of our profession and the advancements that are being made. We also know there is so much more happening up and down the UK, and there are so many members whose work is influencing and improving practice for patients and which largely goes unsung.  

It’s clear that, without the voices of our members, our work wouldn’t progress as quickly as it does. During 2024 the society, as the professional body, focused on the delivery of key projects across the breadth of professional practice, and this included delivering a large programme of funded work for NHS England (click here for a summary of this work).

There has been a great amount of work engaging with all of the nations with regard to the radiography workforce; raising the profile and the capability of the profession at all levels has been key and we are pleased to have been invited to contribute to a large number of working groups supporting the development of policies, which in turn will we believe support the profession across the UK. 

We continue to advocate for career progression and this is well supported by the Education and Career Framework (ECF), which now has a growing number of case studies showcasing individual members and their roles, and clearly defines the practice levels for the profession. The ECF has been key in supporting us to engage, shape and contribute to the advancing practice agenda across all nations, at enhanced, advanced and consultant levels, to ensure radiographers are recognised and new roles supported. 

We know there isn’t sufficient workforce; we have actively engaged and influenced the NHS England Community Diagnostic Centre international recruitment campaign, and the international recruitment campaign for sonographers is developing. We have expanded our work on careers promotion, developing our materials, attending events and forming links with other organisations to help support our work and so broaden awareness of radiography as a career, including linking with an organisation that provides careers advice to elite athletes, Life After Professional Sport (LAPS), and NHS England, which contributed to Armed Forces Insight Days for Radiography. We also recognise and support all of you in supporting promotion of the career. The ‘Hello my Name is’ campaign is still one of the most important ways of providing excellent patient care, and it also offers the opportunity to ensure the public know who you are and what your profession is.  

We are also actively contributing as a key stakeholder in the lung cancer screening programme. There is always more we can do to identify areas where we need to represent our profession more effectively.

Over the last year there have been working parties developing and producing guidance, updating our radiation protection and medicines guidance, for example, so please do take a look at the document library for an update.

We have contributed to external working groups to support access to minimise risk to patients in receiving timely results from imaging in response to recommendations from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report. Nationally, we have been working with NHS England to update the non-medical referrer guidance. It’s pleasing that as last year drew to an end this work was completing, and publication will follow this year.

We have continued to work closely with our allied health professional colleagues across policy, education and research. We have continued to lobby together with AHP colleagues through the #prescribingnow campaign for independent prescribing for Diagnostic Radiographers to align with what is already in place for Therapeutic Radiographers, and we have worked with government to deliver a change in legislation where Therapeutic Radiographers who are independent prescribers may prescribe controlled drugs. This legislation changed at the end of 2023, and supports Therapeutic Radiographers prescribing from a list of controlled drugs. Our push for sonographer regulation doesn’t stop; the importance of the key professional bodies working together on this shouldn’t be underestimated, and we are grateful for the support of all these colleagues. We are working with colleagues to complete e-learning resources to support radiographer-led nasogastric tube clinical evaluation and guidance on radiographer-led discharge, and we continue to develop and promote our own e-learning, with more than 500 sessions now launched within the clinical imaging portfolio on the NHS Technology Enhanced Learning platform. 

I am grateful to all our members of the SoR advisory groups, who support the work in delivering our strategy. As volunteers they work tirelessly in support of our work, being an expert voice and bringing challenge and discussion into our work so our guidance and input into national strategy is strong and informed by members. 

The College of Radiographers has responsibility for supporting research, education and accreditation and setting professional standards, and through the members of the society and the profession the goal to improve patient care.

Our Patient Advisory Group, led by Philip Plant, is well established and continues to grow stronger. Our work must be informed by patients, and the perspectives and input from this fantastic group are greatly appreciated across our operational work. 

The organisation’s mentorships schemes for research (FORMM) and leadership (LMS) have been brilliantly supported by members, and it was positive to hear the range of benefits this scheme offers to mentors and mentees during UKIO congress. 

Growing the evidence base is essential to support our profession and secure its future.  The college’s research advisory group works to deliver the five-year research strategy and support evaluation of the wide range of grants that are made available to members. It is always pleasing to hear about the numbers of applications and the diversity of members’ work. Engagement with key stakeholders including CAHPR and the NIHR continue very positively. 

In relation to education this has been an extremely busy year for the team; the number of education providers offering radiography programmes is increasing and we are seeing widening access to radiography programmes through a greater diversity of routes available at the pre-registration level. The Approval and Accreditation Board of the College has a significant role in assuring the quality of these programmes and individual accreditations for assistant practitioners and practice educators, aligned to the standards within the ECR. I’d like to thank these volunteers for their time and expert advice, and for working so hard over the last year. 

One of our key roles is supporting CPD, training and education for the profession, and it was really pleasing this year to see the successful return of the Annual Radiotherapy Conference and the associated industry exhibition, together with the Achieving Excellence in Radiography Education and Research conference, UKIO and other events and webinars that are available to catch up on www.sor.org. Our partnership with Phillips medical in delivering the National Conference for Radiology Managers attracted record numbers of managers to engage, network and collaborate on key matters.

Radiography research was at the centre of all these events, and it has been positive to see its continuing growth. The society’s international peer review journal has seen a significant increase in submissions and publications, and the increase in Open Access papers is supporting the growth in the impact of the journal. The journal is working to fulfil its two-year diversity pledge via the Diversity Working Group, whose focus included the collection of effective DEIB statistics, a review of published articles relating to DEIB and attracting a wider range of contributors.

In relation to standards, the CoR and the Royal College of Radiologists continued during 2024 to focus on the importance of the Quality Standard for Imaging. Strategic choices were made, with the exciting decision taken this year for the colleges to assess against the quality standard and for the colleges to confer a quality mark for those services meeting the Quality Standard for Imaging. The ongoing focus on quality improvement will continue. We are pleased to see really active engagement and enthusiasm for this new focus. 

As we look forward into 2025 we have our new society and college strategy, which runs until 2027. Our focus across the organisation will be: 

This will see the continuation of existing, but also new, work. We will need to continue to grow the evidence base through college-funded research, to support the changing context and influence the role the profession has in transforming care for patients. AI and technologies will influence how we work, and so our priority is to articulate the key skills and USP that our members have within this changing context and why investment in our profession to meet the changing goals across health must be supported. Retention of the workforce is a priority and therefore our focus on preceptorship, practice education and support, and leadership are critical in contributing to this. Understanding and better embedding patient voice is a priority across all areas of the profession’s practice, and a revision of the Patient, Public and Practitioner Partnerships guidance by the Patient Advisory Group will help drive this priority forward with a fair amount of steam. 

We will be working closely with our trade union colleagues to understand how we can grow, influence and impact positive change for you, our members. This will also include consideration of the outcomes of the NHS AHP programme of work, with work programmes providing preceptorship guidance for the profession; supporting students through a Schwartz Round programme, evaluating the role of standardised assessments and of simulation and clinical placement capacity; and how we can support and grow radiographers’ skills development across all domains and within all settings – clinical, research, education and leadership – while also pushing for recognition and reward. 

Our relationships with external stakeholders are essential to our work; we cannot work in isolation and, just as for all of you, team working, collaboration and constructive dialogue and debate are important, and so we will be striving to continue to grow and develop these as appropriate. Relationships with government, our industry partners and through AXREM, together with charities and professional bodies, are critical if we are to influence the future for our profession, and to ensure we rightly secure our position in healthcare to support ongoing improvements in care for patients, in a way that meets patients’ needs and expectations now and into the future. 

My personal thanks to all members of the SoR | CoR team who support this expansive work programme, and to my deputy, Dr Rachel Harris, who is retiring from her role as head of professional practice and education later this month. Naturally, these are only some of the highlights of SoR | CoR work. 

Please do get involved over the coming year and respond to surveys, share your views, seek involvement through our advisory groups, attend our events, watch out for mentorship opportunities and look at the research funding opportunities that are available through our College of Radiographers Industry Partnership. Any questions, please do get in touch with me via pande@sor.org. 

We are here to support you.

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