Regional Specialty Advisers - Clinical Radiology

• The role of the RSA
• Resources for RSAs
• Vacancies
• Who is my RSA?

The role of the RSA

Regional Specialty Advisers (RSAs) are the regional representatives of The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) with respect to education and training and are accountable to the Medical Director, Education, and Training. They perform a vital role in assuring, on behalf of the RCR, that national standards for training, curriculum delivery, and workplace-based assessment are maintained. They work cooperatively with the RCR, their local office, and the GMC to provide advice and support in their own region and carry out the role of external adviser, providing independent review and quality assurance of the ARCP process outside of their own region.

Internal role

Within their own region, RSAs are local experts on RCR curricula, assessment, and requirements for progression.  They contribute an independent perspective to local quality assurance processes, facilitate communication between the RCR and training programmes in their region, and support trainees, training programme directors (TPDs), and heads of school (HoS). 

External role

RSAs assist in the quality assurance of training in other regions by acting as an external adviser, providing independent, but specialty-specific, feedback on the ARCP process, the evidence provided to support this process (including the quality of educational and clinical supervisors’ reports), and ARCP outcomes.

RSAs fulfil the role of external adviser by attending ARCP panels in at least one other region to observe the ARCP process, providing a review of outcomes and the evidence supporting these, as laid out in the Gold Guide.  They submit a structured report to the RCR and the region visited, and work with other RSAs to highlight and share good practice, and improve the consistency of the ARCP process across regions.

Advisory Appointment Committees

RSAs are also asked to act as the RCR representative on advisory appointment committees (AACs) to quality assure the recruitment and appointment of consultants, specialty doctors and associate specialist posts to NHS trusts and health boards.  This involves reviewing role descriptions for consultant, specialty doctor and associate specialist posts and making recommendations in accordance with RCR guidance and ensuring that any job plans reviewed include provision of appropriate support, particularly where the role includes training responsibilities.  

Resources for RSAs

RSAs play a vital role in the quality assurance of training in the UK.  The RCR supports this role through training, resources such as the specialty training handbook, and recognition of parts of the role through the award of CPD points.

The links below provide some useful resources for RSAs:

• The specialty training handbook - provides a guide to the RCR’s role in training
• The Gold Guide 8^th Edition - sets out the arrangements agreed by the four UK health departments for specialty training programmes
• e-learning for healthcare training modules – these free training modules can be accessed through the educator hub, under ‘supporting and monitoring educational progress'.  They include videos on the ARCP process and a module on assuring and maintaining quality in health professions education
• The external adviser’s ARCP report form

Vacancies

Applications are invited from Fellows and members of the Faculty of Clinical Radiology of The Royal College of Radiologists for appointment as Regional Specialty Advisers for the following regions:

• North West Thames
• North East Thames
• South East Thames
• Kent, Surrey, & Sussex
• East of England
• North West
• Mersey
• Northern Ireland
• South West - Severn
• South West - Peninsula
• Wales

These posts provide a great opportunity for consultants with experience of the delivery and organisation of training in the UK (e.g. as an educational supervisor or training programme director) to impact and improve the quality of training in their region and nationally. 

Please see the role description for further details on the main responsibilities, time commitment, and appointment process.

Application procedure

Applications should be made by submission of a completed application form to QATraining@rcr.ac.uk.  Applications will be considered by the Medical Director, Education, and Training, and where there is more than one applicant a panel scoring process will be used to rank candidates. Appointments are for a term of three years. A maximum of two consecutive terms can be served.

We would encourage any interested consultants to discuss their application with the current RSA for their region and the local Specialty Training Committee (or equivalent). The role of RSA should not normally be combined with that of the training programme director, head of school or departmental lead clinician/clinical director.

If you have any questions, please contact QAtraining@rcr.ac.uk. 

Who is my RSA?

Current members