FEDIP - New Professional Registration for PACS Team Members from 2028 Onwards

Open Forum
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I suspect this is the first of a couple of updates from me today (apologies!)

As many PACS Managers will now be aware, NHS England (and its successors) are moving towards expected professional registration for Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) staff, which includes all relevant members of the PACS Teams, I.T., Clinical Engineering and Radiologists (etc.) who are involved with the management of informatics systems like PACS, RIS, AI or ancillaries in the NHS or Private Healthcare. These teams will be required to maintain registration with the nominated body, the Federation of Informatics Professions (FEDIP), from March 2028 (or the year after for more junior bands) to ensure continued competence in these crucial roles.

A prerequisite for registration (and level of recognition) is sufficient training and qualification.

Looking at the latest workforce data, a good portion of PACS Team members across the UK will probably need to undertake sufficient approved training well before their registrations will be processed, with those on Band 8c or Band 8b requiring to start basically ‘soon’ if they don’t have anything under their belts formally already.

As a result of this, we have had a push in interest for the non-profit training organised by us, with the largest capacity date offered (Liverpool around UKIO) being almost fully subscribed across multiple venues. For those considering requesting training we would greatly appreciate it if it were possible to look at combining as a group with neighbouring Trusts (saves us considerably on administration / travel etc.) We will do our best to include everyone requesting but as always our team of trainers work voluntarily, and of course there’s never any time for clinical staff to take leave during the weekdays unless its a group event too!

For those unaware of this new requirement for professional registration for PACS team members, information is set out by the Institute of Health Records and Information Management’s press release: NHS England & FEDIP partnership establishes DDaT professional recognition - IHRIM with the deadlines for profession registration by band set out on the Health Education England information page here: Professional Membership for the NHS Digital, Data and Technology Workforce | Digital Transformation

From the professional bodies and academics, the BIR is looking at developing suitable sessions, the RCR has a number of existing suitable conferences and the SCoR IM+T Advisory group (RIAG) will be making plans soon too.

Two universities are also offering specific qualifying professional courses to meet the required standards, information on these I will collate and post as a follow-up once their official ‘landing’ pages for their offerings are available. Unfortunately the excellent courses at the University of Sheffield’s Information School have now ceased being offered due to a reorganisation of that department.

From a personal point of view (speaking outside of any of the professional groups I sit on) I suspect professional registration for clinical informatics professionals is a good thing to maintain the quality of the vital services we provide. Although I have not been involved in this push (and the announcement was a ‘surprise’ to me too!), as a Fellow of the BCS I will be exploring implementation of this with their teams and whether there is any streamlining accession to FEDIP for those with legacy qualifications or experience on our teams.

Hope this is useful, sorry again for the length of this post!

Al.

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Hi Alex,

I have to admit I had not heard of this, guess I am not hooked into to the community as I thought. Couple of questions, as I am a Radiographer/PACS Team Lead, I am already registered with the HCPC and SOR. Will this mean I need to also register with a 3rd Body?

Also, do we have any idea of cost of registration with FEDIP?

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Hi Dan. I was also unaware of this. So firstly, thank you Alex for sharing. They have stated: Reduced rates (up to 50%) for Band 7 and below, representing over 80% of the workforce, are available immediately and capped at:

  • £50 for professional body membership plus

  • £36 for Federation of Informatics Professionals (FEDIP) professional registration

  • Tax relief options to further reduce cost

I’m not not if this means our HCPC rate will drop? (I too am a PACS lead/Radiographer) I would not expect the SOR to reduce our rates.

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Thanks Alex,

Digital education and qualifications have definite merit and previous conversations with more technically orientated digital teams were suggesting the importance of formal digital industry qualifications for a proposed role.

However, in relation to that particular role it would have precluded applicants from a clinical background which would have brought more relevant experience.

Likewise as a Radiographer in the Radiology IT Systems Manager role I am registered with HCPC and SoR and like many others have good experience so I am particularly interested in how that may be rated where other professional registration is required at this point in time.

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Hi Dan,

It’s looking to be circa £36 at the moment.

A very knowledgeable PACS Manager in London has dug out their old certificates and reminded me that 20 years ago we used to be registered with a body called UKCHIP (now defunct, website squatted), so I guess it’s actually not a new thing!

At the moment, the HCPC does not regulate DDaT professionals, and the SCoR is not part of FEDIP. Ideally it would be if this is going to be needed for us going forwards long-term.

FEDIP itself is quite ‘cheap’ compared to other national professional registrations (e.g. SIA), but having to maintain membership of an awarding body will be the extra. For us, if the SCoR (or perhaps the BIR) is unable to register us with FEDIP, then IHRIM membership is likely to be the lowest cost for compliance, but the BCS does offer a huge amount of learning resources so it would be a balance for individuals to take.

Some good news… tax wise, all qualifying professional registrations (including the BCS) are eligible for tax rebate, it’s just a form on the HMRC site and they apply it to your tax code going forwards. Same as for uniform cleaning allowance etc.

Our professional bodies are looking into how to navigate this and I’m hopeful we will see some tailored pointers soon.

Have a good weekend!
Al.

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Hi Alex,

“Looking at the latest workforce data, a good portion of PACS Team members across the UK will probably need to undertake sufficient approved training well before their registrations will be processed, with those on Band 8c or Band 8b requiring to start basically ‘soon’ if they don’t have anything under their belts formally already”

Can you elaborate here? Who is deemed to require additional training before they can gain registration? Is experience counted as relevance as well as formal qualification? How is that decision made and when? At the point of registration?
Sorry, i’m a little confused here as to who would need additional training to gain registration and how that is decided.

Thanks

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Hi Mark -

Good question, I’d take a look at the joining requirements for the chosen professional body (BCS, CHIME, CILIP etc.) plus the prerequisites for the relevant level of FEDIP registration.

FEDIP have a series of ‘quizzes’ on their site to help work out which levels are best (it looks quite complex as we’re not used to it): https://www.fedip.org/about

As an example only, as it stands in the current proposals, a Band 8b PACS Manager would likely be expected to register professionally with the BCS working towards Chartered Status and match to a FEDIP level of Advanced Practitioner (as it’s the ‘smoothest’ entry point for that level of responsibility currently).

Looking at the established Digital Skills and Competencies Framework used nationally (SFIA v9 - SFIA 9 Home — English ) MBCS + Advanced Practitioner is mapped to SFIA Level 5 or 6.

Looking at those SFIA levels and the ‘points’ required to achieve them shows what is needed - just in the same way as NHS AfC Job banding in the NHS, achievement of SFIA Levels requires skills and points adding up to certain totals. SFIA 5 and 6 require some form of higher qualification or significant other points to mitigate. In AfC we can mitigate with pure responsibilities being required to gain the points to increase the banding, but SFIA (and almost every other industry outside healthcare!) mostly requires qualifications or proof of competence in some way.

Continuing the example, as the target for Band 8b’s is compliance by March 2028 it would mean Band 8b’s potentially requiring to start some form of related academic qualification in advance if that is what they need to achieve the points for that SFIA level. PRINCE2, ITIL, HL7, DICOM etc., all common in the PACS world would all count towards that though.

Nobody knows here what ‘the stick’ will be for those who fail to comply, but with various controversies over ‘people in too high I.T. jobs not matching their skills’ I think there will be a push from some direction for reasonable compliance given the level of effort the various organisations have put in to this so far (we’re a small part of the DDaT workforce too, so getting swept up in something larger here).

We have had several very productive meetings with NHS England (as have our professional bodies), and at the moment it is looking like FEDIP will likely be accepting the Imaging Informatics Competency Register data (so those who have taken the Intermediate or higher assessments on the national training courses we run, or had the newer Advanced Practice Assessment, will find that ‘counts’, plus those who have attended the Fundamentals training and had a CPD certificate issued previously too for the more junior roles).

So… in summary… discussions remain ongoing to clarify exactly the pathways our profession needs to take, but as long as staff are ‘qualified’ (on paper) rather than seen to be ‘riding the bands’ by experience (or time in post) they should be ok to match across fairly easily (just the cost and time!). It’s those without DDaT qualifications on paper who may need to review what’s needed more closely (and that’s happening in other sectors too so isn’t a unique challenge to us / clinical staff in general).

I know some regions have allocated funding for AHP development and others are prioritising DDaT staff to use those pots due to this recent announcement, but for 8a’s, 8b’s etc. I would probably be looking at what is potentially any ‘skills gap’ on paper (CV) vs. the matching level of SFIA requirements.

The SCoR RIAG will likely be coming together to draw up some tips for those who are SoR members to use which may help too.

Not sure if this helps answer your question though!
Al.

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This may be a silly question, but is coming from someone out of the NHS for many years. The link you give is NHS England, What are Scotland, Wales and NI doing? Are they following suit?

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Excellent question Paul - at the moment there’s nothing I’m aware of from the other devolved nations. However, they do generally mirror initiatives and this (Professionalising Digital) is one of the wider DoH topics of interest.

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