Motto Ex umbris eruditio | Founded 1920 | |
Full name Society and College of Radiographers Motto in English From a shadow cometh light/knowledge Members 22,532 (excluding 2,925 students) Affiliation EFRS, ISRRT, NICE TUC, PARN, STUC, WRETF |
The Society of Radiographers (SoR) is a professional body and trade union that represents more than 90% of the diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers in the United Kingdom. The College of Radiographers (CoR) is a charitable subsidiary of the Society, they are collectively known as the Society and College of Radiographers (SCoR). It was founded in 1920 in an effort to provide standardised training and registration for Radiographers within the British Isles. Until 1996, the SoR was also the professional body and trades union for radiographers in Ireland whereupon the Irish Institute of Radiography and Radiation Therapy was established.
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History
The Society of Radiographers was established in 1920 by Radiologists Dr Albert Forder and Dr Robert Knox. In conjunction with Dr Walmsley and Mr Blacked they formed a sub-committee which drafted rules regarding the admission of new members. Membership to the society was open to Radiographers who had been in continuous, active employment in clinical practice for at least ten years in an electro-therapeutic department or radiology department of an approved hospital by the council. In 1921, a syllabus was developed and examinations were introduced to facilitate competency checks before membership was granted to new members. Membership began to grow with 67 members in 1921 and 164 in 1923.
The society formed a South African branch in 1930 and established a pattern of branch formation with a local committee management which was propagated in the UK during the 1930s. As a result, the Scottish Radiographic Society which was formed in 1927 became a branch of the Society in 1936, the South West Branch in 1937, the North West in 1942, the Midland and the North East in 1943. The first Annual Conference of the Society of Radiographers was in 1947 held at Bath, England.
In June 2015, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) granted accreditation to the processes used by the SCoR in order to generate current clinical guidance for Radiography practice, meaning that the SCoR is NICE accredited.
Objectives
The objectives for which The Society of Radiographers is established are as follows:
The College objectives are directed towards education, research and other activities in support of the science and practice of radiography.
Governance
The Society and College is led by a Council which is made-up of representatives from a number of English regions (Eastern region, London region, Midlands region, North West region, Northern region, South East region, South West region, Yorkshire & North Trent region) and from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Council determines the Society's policy and strategic direction in consultation with members and others that have a vested interest. It meets once a month, with the exception of August and December.
The Society is a company limited by guarantee and the members of Council are company directors registered at Companies House. The College, a registered charity, has its own Board of directors comprising an equal number of members drawn from Council and external directors representing the legal, financial and medical fields. They have responsibilities as representatives of the membership and also as directors of the company. Neither Council members nor College Board members are paid for their duties but they can claim travelling and other expenses.
The President is elected by the members of Council and is inaugurated at the July Council meeting each year. There is also a President-elect and a Vice-president, who also serve for one year.
Patron
The patron of the Society and College of Radiographers is The Rt Hon Llinos "Llin" Golding, Baroness Golding of Newcastle-under-Lyme who is a Labour Party politician and former MP who sits in the House of Lords and who previously practiced as a radiographer.
Education and other activities
Historically, the College was an awarding body for academic awards but no longer fulfils this function. The degree-equivalent radiography qualification awarded by the CoR was the Diploma of the College of Radiographers (DCR) and this was awarded following a three-year training course and successful completion of a national examination, either in Radiodiagnosis (the DCR(R)) or in Therapy Radiography (the DCR(T)). Following study equivalent to Masters level, students with a DCR could proceed by examination to the Higher Diploma of the College of Radiographers (HDCR). Holders of the HDCR undergoing specialist training in management were awarded the Management Diploma of the College of Radiographers (MDCR) and those undergoing specialist training in the teaching of radiography were awarded the Teaching Diploma of the College of Radiographers (TDCR). The first Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Radiography was validated in 1989 and with the widespread introduction of BSc courses in radiography during 1993, the DCR was phased out. The HRCR, TDCR and MDCR have been replaced by postgraduate level courses.
The College maintains an Accreditation and Approval Board which aims to protect patients of radiographers by raising the standards of education and practice. It does so by monitoring and assessing programmes of both pre-registration degree courses and ongoing professional education ranging from ad-hoc events to professional postgraduate training. The College runs courses and conferences. Various guidances and guidelines are published by the CoR often in conjunction with the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), the British Institute of Radiology (BIR) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
Research grants are awarded by the College. An academic library is maintained. Further activities to promote the public interest includes the provision of advice to the public and to government and government agencies and activities to promote public awareness of radiography, radiology and oncology. Information on the activities of the CoR is published on the website of the UK's Charity Commission.
Trade Union Activities
The Society has a membership base throughout the United Kingdom. As such, the Trade Union is associated with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the United Kingdom and with the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC). The organisation was previously associated with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions(ICTU) but it left in 2013 citing financial constraints as the reason. In 2003, before leaving and whilst still in affliction with the ICTU, the Society opposed a motion to restrict affiliation of small unions with the ICTU stating that the motion was "about bureaucracy."
The Society of Radiographers Benevolent Fund
The Society of Radiographers Benevolent Fund is a registered charity (No. 326398) and it assists SoR members, former members and their families in times of hardship or distress and in particular the old, the sick and the incapacitated among members and former members. Information on the activities of the Benevolent Fund is published on the website of the UK's Charity Commission.
Publications
The SCoR issues a number of publications:
Awards
The SCoR maintains a number of awards and grants.