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Employing consultant clinical scientists

The College offers a voluntary, free service for Consultant clinical scientist appointments, where we:  

  • review and approve your consultant grade job descriptions
  • arrange assessors to attend the advisory appointment committee (AAC) and
  • provide guidance on recruiting the right candidates.

A thorough, efficient and professional service providing helpful and knowledgeable  advice, giving confidence and support to your own recruitment process.

–  Dr Lang

Reviewing your job descriptions

We offer a centralised service of review and endorsement of job descriptions. An experienced College staff member will review the draft job description against a relevant model job description. These job descriptions have been created by the College in conjunction with the relevant Specialty Advisory Committees, and are used to:

  • ensure your job description contains a proper balance of clinical, academic where relevant, research and managerial activities
  • check there are sufficient support and facilities to enable these activities to be performed
  • make the job description more appealing to potential candidates.

Once we have received your job description, we will acknowledge receipt and provide initial comments then seek specialist advice if needed and reply to you with any suggestions for modification or an approval.  

To request a job description review, please contact Reshma Patel on reshma.patel@rcpath.org.

Working with a College assessor

We provide a College assessor to attend your AAC. College assessors have a vital role on an appointment committee as spokesperson who advises on the adequacy of candidates’ suitability for the post.

When you request an assessor from the College, we first send you a list of relevant assessors whom you can approach directly. You will then need to let us know which assessor has agreed to represent the College, so that we are able to send them all the necessary documents to undertake the role. Once the assessor has been confirmed, they liaise with you directly.

To source a College assessor please contact workforce@rcpath.org, with the date, time, venue and pathology specialty of the AAC.

It is advisable that you to approach us 8 weeks prior to the interview date, to ensure you are able to secure someone in good time. Once you have identified an assessor, please inform us immediately and ensure that they are included in the short-listing process, as a full member of the AAC.

Further guidance 

Guidance on the appointment of consultant level clinical scientists to employing bodies in the UK

This document provides an overview of the appointment process, from preparing a job description to interview, and includes the services offered by us to ensure this happens. It is both for the use of employing bodies when making appointments to consultant level posts and is also useful for human resources and personnel departments arranging interview panels.