At its meeting held on 3rd November 2010 the VRCT Panel agreed to close its Grandparenting routes on 31st December 2011. The reasons for doing so are set out below:

The VRCT was formally launched in August 2000. At that time there were no clearly defined national standards of education and training for the Clinical Technologist profession. When the Register was established, the entry requirements were based purely on an assessment of an individual's experience of working as a Clinical Technologist, also known as Grandparenting. As the Register developed, the Grandparenting criteria also evolved to include an assessment of educational qualifications. With the introduction of the IPEM Training Scheme for Clinical Technologists the Panel established what has become known as the Primary Criterion for entry. Thus the pathways for entry to the VRCT involved two alternative routes, the Primary Criterion and the Grandparenting Provision.

In the intervening years the VRCT worked to develop the entry requirements with its constituent professional bodies: the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM); the Association of Renal Technologists (ART); and, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and, the Department of Health. As a result, two training schemes (IPEM and ART) and a number of educational programmes have been approved and are in place. It is anticipated that these will continue to be added to over the coming years. In 2006, due to advances in the provision of formal, examined entry routes, it was decided to close the Grandparenting routes to all new entrants to the profession from 1st January 2007.

Consequently, the Panel now believe that, by the end of 2011, all individuals who are qualified to join via the Grandparenting routes will have had ample opportunity to make a successful application to join the Register: All employed before 1st January 2007, will have completed the requisite time in post to qualify via one of the Grandparenting routes. Furthermore, those individuals who also require an appropriate qualification will have had five years to gain one.

This decision will affect all Clinical Technologists, employed prior to 1st January 2007, who have either never joined the VRCT Register or who have joined and subsequently lapsed or removed themselves from the Register and who are unable to join or re-join using the Primary Criterion as their route of entry.

The VRCT Panel 1st December 2010

Note: The Voluntary Register of Clinical Technologists is currently the sole regulator of the Clinical Technologist profession. Clinical Technologists work in healthcare science providing complex services in the area of medical physics and clinical engineering. They provide technical support for diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitation activities involved in the treatment of cancer, heart disease, renal failure, and, supporting people with disabilities. They also design, support, maintain and manage complex medical devices, and, undertake patient diagnostic testing involving ionising and non-ionising radiation and the use of high-tech imaging devices.

For more information on the VRCT please follow this link