Diagnostic radiographer at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust

The job at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust

Diagnostic radiographers produce and interpret the medical images that let clinicians see inside the body. They operate X-ray equipment, CT and MRI scanners, fluoroscopy, ultrasound and nuclear medicine cameras, positioning patients accurately, justifying and optimising radiation dose and checking image quality. The work mixes technical precision with fast-moving patient care, from trauma imaging in the emergency department to theatre, wards, clinics and screening programmes. Experienced radiographers report images, lead ultrasound lists and take on advanced practice roles. Patients of all ages, from newborns to older people, who need imaging for diagnosis, screening, monitoring or image-guided treatment, including trauma, cancer, cardiac and emergency patients.

At a specialist trust such as Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust, that work means a concentrated specialist caseload, referred in from a wide area because the care needed is beyond what a district general hospital provides. Posts here are more often specialist from appointment than rotational, and some specialist centres recruit at band 6 where the work requires prior experience. Across the profession as a whole, diagnostic radiographers work in settings including NHS acute trust imaging department, emergency department, operating theatres, CT and MRI units and nuclear medicine — an organisation of this type will run some of those services and not others, which is why two posts with the same job title in the same city can be very different jobs.

Pay is not an employer decision. Agenda for Change is negotiated nationally and set separately in each of the four nations, so Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust pays band 5 exactly what every other NHS employer in England pays it: £32,073 at the bottom of the band on the 2026/27 scale. For context, median full-time pay across all occupations in the Yorkshire and The Humber was £35,682 in 2025. What genuinely differs between two employers is the caseload, how rotations are structured, how much protected time you get for supervision and continuing professional development, how much band 6 progression is built into the establishment, and how far you travel between sites. Those are the questions worth asking at interview.