In the spring of 2017, IPEM, NHS England and the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) released a joint statement regarding the Improving Clinical Engineering and Physical Science Services (iCEPSS) initiative. UKAS then released a call for potential pilot sites and specialisms. This is a long-awaited step forward for a project that started in 2013.

The decision to base the accreditation on BS70000 provides a route to wider standardization of the accreditation of healthcare science services.

In the summer of 2017 a webinar was held to launch what is now to be known as the Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering (MPACE) accreditation programme.

There are a number of documents and links to view in relation to MPACE:

• The joint statement from IPEM, NHS England and UKAS.
• UKAS call for potential pilot sites and specialisms.
• Detailed explanation of the development process and rationale for BS70000.
• The latest update (11 April 2018) on the UKAS website.
• A question and answer document from the MPACE webinar held in August 2017, and you can view the webinar itself here.

The latest update on MPACE (November 2018) is available here.

Dr Peter Jarritt, former IPEM President, is chair of the UKAS MPACE Technical Advisory Committee.