The College's Medical Workforce Department has two major functions. All consultant job descriptions in pathology specialities in the NHS must be approved by the College. Employers should submit draft job descriptions to their Regional College Adviser in Postgraduate Education. The Regional Adviser consults with the Assistant Registrar and relevant specialty adviser and then is responsible for approving the job description, if necessary after modification. College assessors are full members of consultant AACs and in addition to advising on the suitability of candidates for appointment, feed back information on unsuccessful candidates to the College.
Workforce planning is essential to the provision of an efficient, high quality pathology service.
Both through monitoring AACs and through direct surveys, the department collects manpower data for use by SWAG and other relevant professional groups, and advises the College on trends in recruitment in pathology specialties.