The Institute of Biomedical Science

www.ibmscongress.com

MSC: the facts

Education, training and biomedical scientist career paths: conjecture can be interesting but it's facts that count

The Modernising Scientific Careers project has been the subject of much debate; however, despite the fact that it is now in the process of implementation, misunderstanding and conjecture continues to surround degrees, registration and career paths for biomedical scientists. The following are the facts as currently understood by the IBMS (April 2012).

Healthcare science practitioners and healthcare scientists
The Modernising Scientific Careers (MSC) project originally envisaged the creation of two new Health Professions Council (HPC)-regulated professions: healthcare science practitioners and healthcare scientists. In Life Sciences, these were intended gradually to replace the current biomedical scientist and clinical scientist workforce through a process of natural wastage and grandparenting. This is now unlikely to happen. The government's Command Paper of February 2011, Enabling Excellence, effectively halted any plans for new statutory registers for the foreseeable future and the current biomedical scientist and clinical scientist registers will remain open.

Practitioner training programme and scientist training programme
The new healthcare science degrees under development by some universities do not have a regulatory outcome as part of the MSC model. However, the IBMS is seeking to accredit these whenever invited to do so by the university if they are able to meet IBMS accreditation standards for biomedical science degrees and hence suitability for HPC registration as a biomedical scientist.

What is now happening in some universities that offer Institute-accredited co-terminus (integrated) biomedical science degrees is the conversion of this course into a healthcare science course, with the intention of maintaining the approved and accredited status of the programme so that graduates would be eligible to apply for HPC registration as a biomedical scientist upon successful completion. The non-integrated biomedical science degrees will continue and trusts will have the option to recruit graduates from these accredited courses as trainee biomedical scientists and put them through registration portfolio training for registration, as is currently done.

Ongoing discussions are exploring how graduates from the new scientist training programmes (STPs) might be able to meet the HPC clinical scientist standards of proficiency and hence register as clinical scientists.

IBMS qualifications and career progression
Institute professional qualifications will continue and remain valued due to their direct relevance to service and economic pressures driving the need for high-quality, low-cost products. It is recognised that the number of more senior staff is being reduced, but, in view of the fact all IBMS qualifications are based on self-directed learning and no longer depend on the acquisition of a Master’s degree, it is expected that members will view the IBMS Higher Specialist Diploma (HSD) as a qualification route, for those with aspirations, to Band 7 roles as it is an M-level qualification (independently verified by University of Wales Institute, Cardiff – now Cardiff Metropolitan University).

Access to the scientist training programme
It is likely that the majority of entrants to the STP training course will be de novo graduates, with healthcare science graduates in equal competition with any other graduate.  The selection process for these places is rigorous. There is also a 'home grown' route for biomedical scientists currently in employment who, with the support of their employer, wish to enter the STP interviews. Some existing biomedical scientists may apply for exemption from some elements of the course through the approved prior experience and learning (APEL) route.

Voluntary registration
The Enabling Excellence Command Paper set out the government’s policy on professional regulation. It outlines a system of ‘assured voluntary registration’ and states that in the future statutory regulation will only be considered where there is a "compelling case" and where "voluntary registers are not considered sufficient to manage this risk". The paper states that for the majority of groups that are currently unregulated "the assumption will be that assured voluntary registration would be the preferred option". For members of the healthcare science workforce not currently eligible for regulation as a biomedical or clinical scientist and who are not enrolled on a course of study leading to admittance to one of these registers, the future is likely to be admittance to a voluntary register, as yet to be determined.

In summary

While the MSC programme is in the implementation phase there remains much work to be done against a backdrop of significant pathology change across the UK.

The issue of equivalence remains to be defined but will focus on the assessment of individuals in terms of education and practical experience against the outcomes of the MSC STP curricula.

Laboratories that require biomedical scientists can continue to recruit graduates from the accredited full-time biomedical science degrees, the part-time biomedical science degrees (a route for support worker development as there are currently no part-time healthcare science [HCS] degrees), and the new integrated HCS degrees which meet IBMS and HPC standards. Registration will be as a biomedical scientist.

Biomedical scientist is a title protected by statute and requires applicants to meet the criteria and standards set by the HPC. Successful completion of the emerging healthcare science degree programmes may allow students to meet the statutory requirements for registration but will require HPC approval and/or IBMS accreditation, with the subsequent Institute-awarded Certificate of Competence, to meet the requirements to register as a biomedical scientist.

STP outcomes in relation to clinical scientist registration is subject to ongoing dialogue and discussion with the relevant organisations.