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Senior Assessment Manager Mark Prescott is UKAS’s Technical Focus Person for microbiology and virology and is also a Technical Assessor.
Mark is one of UKAS’s longest standing Technical Focus Persons (TFP) and uses his wide experience and expertise in the scientific study of microorganisms and biological viruses to support colleagues in the Healthcare Section.
Microbes are at the heart of finding solutions to the world’s most pressing problems: ensuring that our food is safe; treating and preventing disease and developing technologies to monitor environment factors and protect the planet. The study of microbiology and virology has become even more important since the COVID-19 pandemic with the need to detect viruses and develop vaccines at speed.
As a Senior Assessment Manager and TFP, Mark supports the growing Healthcare team with technical knowledge in this critical area and keeps colleagues up-to-date with the latest industry knowledge. He regularly attends events run by organisations such as the Institute of Biomedical Science, and is a regular attender at the biennial Microbe Conference. He also represents UKAS at various stakeholder meetings.
Mark was one of the first TFPs at UKAS. He says: “I was the obvious person to take on the microbiology role as I carried out technical assessments as well as being an assessment manager. The role was limited at first, but expanded with the pandemic when we set up remote assessments and introduced technical assessor meetings, initially for microbiology and virology before expanding across other disciplines.
As part of my role, I now chair meetings of the TFPs across Healthcare and give technical advice to assessment managers who don’t have a medical labs background. I also help to train new Assessment Managers and will be looking after the newly introduced technical assessment monitoring programme. All of this work helps to bring a consistency to our technical assessments and this is essential as it’s the area where there are the greatest risks.
Another key element of the TFP role is keeping up-to-date with continual professional development (CPD) and professional registrations.”
Mark joined UKAS in 2012 and before this worked as a microbiology laboratory manager in Scarborough after returning to the UK from a few years spent working as a microbiology manager for a small lab in Dublin.
“In the lab role at Scarborough I became more interested in the quality management side of things and applied to be a technical assessor for CPA, which later became UKAS. I took a self-funded ISO 9000 quality management course and then decided to apply for an assessment manager role at UKAS which was a natural progression for me.
My wife Miranda and I had two young daughters at this time, so we decided to move back to our home town of Wigan to be nearer to family as I would be travelling a lot with the assessment manager role.
It was interesting to be there in the early days when we were a small team carrying out medical assessments and transitioning to ISO 15189. I also continued doing technical assessments for UKAS as this always gives you something fresh to think about.”
Mark studied biological sciences at Wolverhampton University some 30 years ago and his first job was as a trainee biomedical scientist at a lab in Wigan. He says: “The degree course was good because it was broad and gave me the chance to explore different areas of science before specialising in microbiology. I continued to study part-time once I started work and went on to take a master’s degree.”
Mark enjoyed the science subjects at school and took chemistry, physics and biology A Levels. He says: “I was interested in science, but had no idea what I was going to do for a career. I’m now having similar conversations with my teenage daughters. It’s hard to make career decisions at a young age, but good to study subjects that you enjoy and keep your options open.”
To relax away from work Mark enjoys playing on games consoles and going to the gym. At the weekends the family enjoy getting out for walks and spending time together.