Work as a radiographer in the UK: HCPC registration (2026)

• Your first practising qualification is in diagnostic radiography (medical imaging) or therapeutic radiography (radiation therapy), and you have never held HCPC registration.
• You apply for the branch your qualification supports. Imaging experience gained after a radiotherapy degree, or the reverse, does not change the branch assessors compare you with.
• Your course covered radiation physics, dosimetry and radiation protection, not only positioning and equipment operation.
• For diagnostic radiography: you can show supervised clinical practice across general and emergency radiography and at least some cross-sectional or fluoroscopy work, and that you evaluated images and escalated findings.
• For therapeutic radiography: you can show work in pre-treatment planning, treatment delivery on linear accelerators and patient review during a course of radiotherapy.
• Your university can state placement hours for each clinical area on the HCPC course information form.
• A superintendent, lead or senior radiographer who supervised you can act as referee using a hospital email address.
• You hold IELTS 7.0 with no band under 6.5, OET Radiography at 1400 with no sub-test under 300, or the HCPC TOEFL iBT scores, unless your qualification came from a listed English-speaking country.

Check your route with the route finder

• HCPCHealth and Care Professions Council

  Physiotherapists, radiographers, paramedics and other allied health professions

  How to register with the HCPC

1. 1

   Pick your branch and read its standards

   Open the HCPC standards of proficiency for radiographers and mark the general standards plus the diagnostic-only or therapeutic-only ones for your branch. Set your transcript beside them. Gaps usually show up in standards on authorising examinations, dose calculation and image or treatment evaluation.
2. 2

   Learn the UK legal frame for radiation

   Read how IR(ME)R 2017 divides responsibility between referrer, practitioner and operator, and how employer procedures and diagnostic reference levels work. You do not need to have worked under IR(ME)R, but you must show you understand the equivalent rules you did work under and how you applied them. SoR webinars on radiation protection legislation are a practical starting point.
3. 3

   Book OET Radiography or IELTS

   Radiographers can sit the radiography version of OET, whose case material is closer to your daily work than IELTS. Aim for 1400 with every sub-test at 300 or above, or IELTS 7.0 with no band under 6.5. Check the certificate will still be under two years old on the day you submit.
4. 4

   Get placement hours by modality

   Ask your university to complete the course information form with clinical hours broken down by area: general, emergency, theatre and mobile, fluoroscopy, CT, MRI, mammography or, for therapy, planning and treatment. A single total for clinical practice gives assessors little to work with.
5. 5

   Write the experience section around decisions

   For each post, describe the examinations or treatments you carried out and the decisions you owned: when you refused or modified a request, how you set exposures for children or bariatric patients, what you did with an unexpected finding, how you checked treatment set-up. Write it yourself; the HCPC screens for AI and copied text.
6. 6

   Map every standard with evidence

   In the mapping document, point each standard to a course, a placement or a role. For diagnostic applicants, standard 13.40 on urgent and unexpected findings and 13.24 on recording dose are often answered weakly. For therapeutic applicants, show planning-system work for 13.44, not only delivery.
7. 7

   Submit, then watch for a test of competence

   Submit and pay the scrutiny fee. If two radiographer assessors cannot confirm a standard from your papers, they refer you to a structured professional discussion on those gaps. Prepare to talk through real cases, dose decisions and UK legislation.
8. 8

   Register and target the right posts

   Once your registration number is issued, search NHS Jobs for Band 5 diagnostic or therapeutic radiographer posts. Experienced CT or MRI radiographers may be shortlisted for Band 6 modality posts, depending on the employer. Many trusts run preceptorship and induction for overseas radiographers.

• Test of competence for radiographers

  This is not a written exam. It is a structured professional discussion with two radiographers from the HCPC's assessor pool, focused only on the standards your papers did not show. For radiographers, expect questions on justification and optimisation of exposures, radiation protection for staff, patients and the public, image quality and what you would do with an abnormal or urgent finding, or for therapy, plan checking and on-treatment review. The HCPC regulator page on this site covers the booking, deadline and result process.

• OET Radiography or IELTS

  OET Radiography uses workplace tasks set in imaging and radiotherapy settings; the HCPC accepts it at 1400 with each sub-test at 300 or higher, and does not accept OET versions for other professions from a radiographer. IELTS must be sat at an official centre, not online at home.

  Read the guide

• Radiographers need IELTS at 7.0 overall with no band under 6.5, the same level as most HCPC professions. Speech and language therapists are the only HCPC profession with a higher bar.
• OET Radiography is the only OET version the HCPC accepts from a radiographer, at 1400 overall with no sub-test under 300. A nursing or medicine OET result will not count.
• Patient communication is part of the radiographer standards: explaining risk and benefit of radiation exposure to service users (standard 12.9) and gaining consent before an examination or treatment. A strong speaking score supports the evidence you give for those standards.
• Radiographers trained in a listed majority English-speaking country, such as Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada or the USA, do not send English evidence. Gulf states, India and the Philippines are not on that list.
• Accepted test versions, TOEFL iBT scores from 21 January 2026, one-skill retakes and the two-year validity rule are set out on our HCPC regulator page, and the separate B2 visa English rule on our UK country guide.

Estimate your total cost

• Universities that never recorded placement hours by modality may need several weeks to rebuild them from logbooks; start this before booking OET Radiography.
• Allow time to study IR(ME)R and UK radiation protection practice before writing the mapping document, because that is where radiographer applications most often fall short.
• The HCPC currently quotes about 3 months from a complete application to a first decision, with longer waits when international volumes are high, then a verification stage before registration.
• A referral to a test of competence for dose, image evaluation or treatment-planning gaps adds time; the discussion must happen within 12 months of referral.
• NHS imaging departments often interview while registration is pending, so many radiographers start job applications in the last weeks of the HCPC stage.
• Shared HCPC and visa stage timings are kept up to date on our HCPC regulator page and UK country guide.

NHS Health Careers says diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers start on Agenda for Change Band 5. Figures below are NHS Employers 2026/27 pay points for England from 1 April 2026; the other UK nations and London high cost area supplements differ. Imaging departments run 24-hour services, so on-call and unsocial hours payments are common and vary by employer.

• Band 5 (diagnostic or therapeutic radiographer)

  £32,073 to £39,043

  Intermediate point £34,592 after 2 years.

• Band 6 (senior or modality-specialist radiographer, for example CT or MRI)

  £39,959 to £48,117

• Band 7 (advanced practitioner or team lead)

  £49,387 to £56,515

• Band 8a (consultant-level or service manager roles)

  £57,528 to £64,750

  Banding for senior roles is set locally by job evaluation.

See your NHS band and annual pay

• NHS hospital imaging departments (general radiography, emergency, theatres, CT and MRI).
• NHS radiotherapy and cancer centres for therapeutic radiographers.
• Community diagnostic centres run by or for the NHS.
• Breast screening services.
• Independent sector imaging providers that deliver NHS services (check they hold a sponsor licence).

• The visa occupation code is SOC 2020 2254, medical radiographers. GOV.UK lists its job titles as diagnostic radiographers and sonographers, therapeutic radiographers, and vascular scientists, and the code is eligible for the Health and Care Worker visa.
• Diagnostic and therapeutic posts use the same code, so a move from an imaging job to a radiotherapy job does not change the occupation code, though a change of employer needs a new certificate of sponsorship.
• Community diagnostic centres and independent imaging providers that deliver NHS scans may be able to sponsor you on the Health and Care Worker visa; a purely private clinic may need the Skilled Worker visa. Ask the employer which route it uses before you accept.
• Sonography posts also sit under 2254, but sonographer is not an HCPC protected title, so the employer decides whether to recruit you on radiographer registration plus ultrasound training.
• Salary thresholds, fees, the B2 English rule, dependants and the absence of the health surcharge are the same for every NHS profession; read them on our UK country guide, and the HCPC international route mechanics on our HCPC regulator page.

1. 1

   A DHA, DOH, MOHAP, SCFHS, QCHP or other GCC licence does not transfer. The HCPC looks at the radiography qualification that first let you practise, then at your experience.

2. 2

   Gulf hospitals often run high-volume CT, MRI and interventional lists. Describe the protocols you chose, contrast and screening checks you carried out and dose decisions you made, not only the scanners you used.

3. 3

   If your Gulf title was radiologic technologist or radiology technician, explain which decisions were yours and which sat with the radiologist, and how that compares with UK justification under IR(ME)R.

4. 4

   Radiation therapists from Gulf cancer centres should evidence planning-system and on-treatment review work, which assessors look for under the therapeutic standards.

5. 5

   Ask your chief radiographer or radiology manager to act as referee from a hospital email address before you leave, and request certificates of good standing from every Gulf authority you were licensed with.

6. 6

   SoR's international membership rate applies while your registered address is still in the Gulf, which gives access to its guidance before you move.

• Application plan with every step, fee and deadline

• Document checklist tailored to you, and a review of each document before upload

• Timeline built around the regulator's closure windows and document validity periods

• Help completing the application forms accurately and consistently

• Support with profession-specific evidence, such as the HCPC standards of proficiency mapping

• Guidance on certificates of good standing, references and certified translations

• Preparation for identity checks and declarations on health and character

• Tracking your application and help responding to regulator requests

• Next steps after the decision: exams, adaptation, PIN or licence and your first job

Regulators make all registration decisions and set all fees. Our fee is separate from the regulator's fees, exam fees and translation costs.

What our registration and licensing support includesPackages and fees