Head of Radiation Protection and Consultant Clinical Scientist

NHS; Northwood; On-site; GBP 76,000 - 89,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK healthcare provider is seeking a Head of Radiation Protection and Consultant Clinical Scientist at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre. The role involves leading radiation safety, supporting multiple NHS Trusts, and ensuring compliance with legal obligations in diagnostic radiology. Ideal candidates will be HCPC registered Clinical Scientists with substantial experience and qualifications. A competitive salary and a permanent contract are offered.

Qualifications

• HCPC registered Clinical Scientist qualified to act as RPA and MPE.
• Minimum 5 years relevant experience as a clinical scientist.
• MPE certificate or on the active RPA 2000 MPE list.

Responsibilities

• Lead on provision of radiation protection and support to multiple NHS Trusts.
• Manage senior clinical scientists and provide staff training and development.
• Ensure compliance with statutory obligations for ionising radiation.

Skills

Good communicator of complex information

Ability to analyse and interpret complex data

Highly developed manual dexterity

Education

Good (1st or 2nd Class) Honours degree in a relevant subject

Postgraduate qualification in a relevant branch of physics

State registration with the Health & Care Professions Council

Corporate Membership of the IPEM or equivalent

Tools

Sophisticated scientific and technical equipment

Job description

Job Summary

We are recruiting for a Head of Radiation Protection and Consultant Clinical Scientist who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.

The post holder will also support a number of external Trusts under service level agreements. The radiation protection department is part of the wider radiation services team at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre and provides specialist scientific advice and technical support to radiology, and other users of imaging including radiotherapy, nuclear medicine, breast screening, u/s and MRI.

The Radiation Protection Department includes scientific and technical support services, radiation protection advice, quality assurance for imaging equipment, a personal dosimetry service for the assessment of dose to staff, radiation safety surveys. The Trust is part of the ImageEast network, and the post holder will lead on medical physics contribution to several workstreams.

The post holder will act as the lead Radiation Protection Adviser and Medical Physics Expert for the Trust and other staff groups and patients in the Trust and other specified organisations.

At the heart of everything we do are our core values: Include, Respect, and Improve. We encourage you to embrace these values throughout the recruitment process and in your role with us.

Main Duties of the Job

The successful candidate will be a HCPC registered Clinical Scientist, qualified to act as an RPA and MPE in diagnostic radiology with sufficient experience to work at consultant scientist level.

You will have excellent communication skills as you will lead on the provision of radiation protection and scientific support to several Employers including a number of NHS Trusts.

You will be required to work alongside local clinical and managerial service leads to ensure organisations deliver statutory obligations with respect to the safe use of ionising radiation.

The post holder will line manage senior clinical scientists and technologists and lead on staff development and training, including the provision of trainees undertaking the STP programme or equivalent, MPE and RPA training and HSST.

Ideally, we are looking for someone who already has MPE and RPA certification, but if you have begun to work towards this and expect to be able to submit a portfolio within twelve months of appointment, we would still like to hear from you.

Job Location

Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Rickmansworth Road, Northwood, HA6 2RN

Details

Date posted: 11 November 2025

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: 8c

Salary: £76,965 to £88,682 a year per annum, plus 15% High Cost Area Supplement

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Full-time

Reference number: 361-7427490-C

Person Specification

Qualifications / Training – Essential

• Good (1st or 2nd Class) Honours degree in a relevant subject (physics or engineering).
• Postgraduate qualification in a relevant branch of physics or medical physics to the level of at least a Master's degree (MSc).
• State registration with the Health & Care Professions Council, as a Clinical Scientist.
• Corporate Membership of the IPEM or equivalent.
• At least 5 years relevant experience as a clinical scientist.
• Certificate of competence to practise as a Radiation Protection Adviser.
• MPE certificate of competence or on the active RPA 2000 MPE list.

Qualifications / Training – Desirable

• Completion of HSST scheme or equivalent.

Previous Experience – Essential

• Highly specialised training and practical experience in Diagnostic Imaging and Radiation Protection.
• Highly specialised training and practical experience in the use and quality assurance testing of a range of highly technical equipment.
• Experience in the application of relevant legislation, national standards, professional and other guidelines and be able to communicate their application to other health professionals including senior management.
• Experience of working in teams.
• Experience of auditing others.
• Experience of clinical service provision.

Skills – Essential

• Good communicator of highly complex and sensitive information to patients and members of the public. Able to communicate highly complex scientific data to multi-disciplinary staff.
• Ability to analyse and interpret complex data, compare ranges of options, make judgements from the results and determine the cause of erroneous results.
• Ability to interpret technical and scientific situations, in which facts may conflict, and judging measures required to deal with them.
• Highly developed physical accuracy, manual dexterity skills and good eye-sight to achieve precision and speed in the use of sophisticated scientific and technical equipment.
• Expertise in using VDUs and have the ability to create and develop electronic documents, spreadsheets and Clinical Applications software.
• Ability to teach, train and supervise students and other members of staff across the whole range of Radiation Protection.
• Ability to apply knowledge and experience of practical radiation protection and radioactive waste management in order to propose and manage the implementation of new procedures and equipment, and the development of existing ones.
• Ability to manage priorities and respond flexibly to changing requirements.
• Occasional requirement to exert moderate physical effort for several short periods during a shift.
• Frequent requirement for prolonged concentration.
• Frequent exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances (e.g. when communicating results of radiation dose measurements to staff or patients).
• Occasional exposure to highly unpleasant working conditions.

Knowledge – Essential

• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in Medical Physics and Radiation Protection (clinical, technical and scientific).
• In depth knowledge and understanding of relevant legislation, national standards, professional and other guidelines (IRR 2017, IR(ME)R 2017).
• Knowledge of budget holding and financial resource management.
• Extensive knowledge and expertise across clinical, research and development and personnel areas.
• Specialist knowledge of the techniques employed to measure the performance and radiological safety of a wide variety of digital and analogue state of the art X‑ray imaging equipment.
• Specialist knowledge on the dose measurement techniques of ionising radiations including the various techniques for measurement of patient dose in radiography, fluoroscopy, cardiology, CT, mammography and dental.

Other Requirements – Essential

• Experience and evidence of engagement around equality, diversity and inclusion issues in relation to policy, service development and service delivery in respect of both services to users and the management of staff.
• Role model our Trust values every day.
• Must be able to concentrate where the work pattern is unpredictable.
• Be flexible in their approach to coordinating workload.
• Be prepared to work in an environment where there is a radiation hazard.
• Be able to work both independently and within a small team.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer Details

East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust

Address: Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Rickmansworth Road, Northwood, HA6 2RN

Employer's website: https://www.enherts-tr.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)