One of the statutory functions of the CORU Registration Boards is to approve and monitor education and training for the registration of professions
Dear Editor,
I am writing to you in relation to the article ‘Radiography training changes pose potential risk to patient safety, clinical tutors warn‘ published on November 21, 2025 in the Irish Medical Times.
I wish to address two sections in the article
- “Changes to how radiography students are trained risk reducing the quality of graduates and undermining patient safety.” and
- “The expansion plans come alongside significant proposed changes in radiography training, including a reduction in clinical assessments by one-third, a cut in clinical placement hours, and the use of simulated learning instead of in-person teaching.”
One of the statutory functions of the CORU Registration Boards is to approve and monitor education and training for the registration of professions. This power is set out in Part 5 of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended). Approval and monitoring is the process by which the Board approve education and training programmes to ensure they meet the Board’s criteria and graduates meet the standards of proficiency for the profession. The Radiographers Registration Boards’ criteria for education and training programmes and standards of proficiency can be found at Criteria and Standards of Proficiency – Coru.
During the quality assurance processes of approval and subsequent monitoring, a provider must demonstrate that the programme(s) associated with a specific qualification meets the criteria for education and training programmes and has a system in place to consistently and safely produce graduates who meet the standards of proficiency for the profession.
CORU also require approved programmes to provide information to CORU on an annual basis in relation to operation information regarding staffing, student cohort, and major changes to the programme content and delivery.
In addition, any individual or organisation may report concerns relevant to the education and training of professionals under the Act.
CORU’s primary concern is always patient safety, which is why we apply the processes noted above. All approved programmes must ensure that each student completes 1000 hours in practice placements. Programmes must also ensure that all students progressively achieve all the standards of proficiencies before graduation through a range of learning and teaching approaches. CORU acknowledges the importance of practice placement and the role that HSCP professionals across the professions play practice education.
I am confident that graduates from our approved programmes continue to be of a high quality delivering safe and effective care to service users. Once registered graduates are required to engage in continuing professional development (CPD) and are subject to the code of professional conduct and ethics for their profession further ensuring safe and effective care to service users.
Kind regards,
Garrett Duffy
Head of Education Quality Assurance
CORU
Regulating Health & Social Care Professionals
