This week’s blog comes from Julie Emerson, Deputy Chief Allied Health Professional (AHP), Emma Gudgeon, AHP Project Support Officer/OT Apprentice and Louise Davies, Professional Lead for Occupational Therapy/Head of Acute Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy. You may remember their blog on New Years Eve around AHP recruitment and development and this is a timely update on this work.
AHP Workforce project
In our last Blog we introduced you to a national Health Education England project to look at ways to address the upcoming shortage of registered AHPs and to utilise the wealth of experience our AHP support workers have. Here is some of the work we have been involved in:
Support worker competency framework
Health Education England (HEE) has developed a NEW National Allied Health Professional Support Worker Competency Framework which recognises a set of essential core skills and behaviours such as excellent communication, leadership, quality improvement, evidence-based practice and person-centred care competencies. AHP Support Workers deliver consistently high standards of safe, personal, effective care and this framework formally recognises their wide range of skills. These are also qualities that will provide support workers with a platform to progress via the apprenticeship route to become a qualified clinician should they wish to do so.
We would like to say a huge thank you to the AHP support workers and their
supervisors who attended our support worker workshops. Following the feedback we have received from these we have developed a short presentation which gives an outline of what the framework is, why it is being introduced and what it will mean. It will hopefully answer a lot of questions you may have, but if you require further information, please email Emma.Gudgeon@elht.nhs.uk.
You can use the new AHP Support Worker Framework straight away. Your manager will be able to help with this should you have any questions once the project has ended. There is a Skills Passport for band 2, band 3 and band 4 AHP support workers to use to track their progress. You can access these skills passports below:
Watch out for updates from Health Education England and ELHT advising the next steps with regards to the Framework.
Next, we want to say another thank you to all colleagues who took the time to complete the support worker survey. In total 88 of our AHP support workers completed the survey. The responses are invaluable in helping ELHT and HEE to understand how we can develop our support workers for the future.
Here is an insight into some of the responses:
· 82% are ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ happy
· 46% of support workers have a qualification that is relevant to their role
· 49% feel there are further tasks that could be taken on within the role. Examples include being more involved in assessments, running groups and speaking to relatives to obtain baselines as well as more specific tasks related to radiology, ultrasound and dietetics.
· 54% want to progress asap and 21% in the future
· 23% felt there was a lack of opportunity for progression and 33% said formal training wasn’t offered whilst 31% were not aware of the apprenticeship offer.
· 14% raised concerns about the support worker role as it varies hugely across the Trust and managers seem unclear of what the job role should entail.
These responses have been feedback to managers and we are encouraging our AHP support workers to use their supervision and personal development planning sessions to discuss any personal aspirations.
We are also working with HEE and our ELHT teams to plan our future training needs for support workers.
Electronic staff record and workforce dashboard – Lee Bunting has been working to make sure the data we have about our workforce is accurate which helps us to plan. Mudds Gire has developed a dashboard so we can view our workforce more easily. Training is available for leads and managers who wish to understand more about using ESR and the Power Bi dashboard. Please contact Lee (lee.bunting@elht.nhs.uk) or Mudds (mudassir.gire@elht.nhs.uk) for more information.
Apprenticeships
ELHT offers a range of apprenticeships for support workers and registered 
AHPs. These offer an opportunity to learn whilst you earn, in your workplace. Colleagues are encouraged to speak to your line manager to discuss your options.
The Skills for Health page below shows career pathways for the AHP professions from education level 2 to level 7 apprenticeship options.
https://haso.skillsforhealth.org.uk/pathways/?type=2#pcat=1043&lvl=
We are continuing to work with HEE and the local education providers to develop apprenticeship routes.so keep looking at what is available.
Louise Davies, OT professional lead and Head of Acute OT and Physio explains more about the new OT degree apprenticeship which started in March 2022.
Into The Future With Apprenticeships
We are now offering an Occupational Therapy Degree Apprenticeship programme and have just employed our first two Occupational Therapy Apprentices. We are working in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and have also been working closely with colleagues in ELHT DERI, AHP Managers across Lancashire and South Cumbria and the AHP Faculty to develop a placement to circulate across physical health, mental health and social care organisation in order to meet the occupational therapy degree apprenticeship programme – this is a really exciting development for ELHT and we will continue to update you in trust news as this progresses. We have also recently started to work on developing a similar programme for Physiotherapists.
Watch out for further opportunities in the near future for apprenticeships and other qualifications in a variety of AHP Professions.
Preceptorship
Our new band 5 staff have faced some of the most difficult challenges, training and qualifying during the pandemic. Work has been on-going to ensure that all our band 5 newly qualified AHPs have access to preceptorship. HEE and ELHT have developed the ELHT Multi-Professional Preceptorship Framework which is being rolled out to some nursing and AHP groups as a trial. All our newly qualified band 5 AHPs have access to either the ELHT Multi-Professional Preceptorship Framework or a profession specific or in-house preceptorship programme which supports them in the first 12 to 18 months of practice.
Focus groups have shown how this time is valued by staff to help them gain confidence 
and to develop their competencies. We want to encourage managers to ensure they are offering preceptorship to ‘new’ band 5s and urge our band 5s to make sure they are accessing the preceptorship offer – it’s your time to reflect and learn.
International Recruitment
HEE is supporting recruitment of international AHPs. I have met some of our ELHT international AHPs as part of the project. They are making valuable contributions to our teams in specialist roles that have been difficult to recruit to. There is guidance for managers and staff who want to consider this option on the link below.
https://www.hee.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/documents/AHP%20-%20Quick%20guide%20to%20internati.pdf
Return to practice
We have launched our recruitment of AHPs who have been out of practice for a time by offering Return to Practice placements to develop confidence to return to the NHS. If you know anyone who may be interested, please share the links below.
https://www.facebook.com/ELHT.NHS/photos/a.407966142596366/5062501210476146/
https://www.facebook.com/ELHT.NHS/photos/a.407966142596366/5049429451783322/
Moving Forward
This phase of the project finishes at the end of April 2022. A 1 to 3 year strategy has been developed for our AHP and support worker workforce which focuses on how we can recruit and retain our valuable workforce.
It has been a pleasure working with the wonderful ELHT staff over the last 6 months and I have no doubt that together you will use this work to continue to grow the team.
If you would like to be a guest blogger, then please email communications@elht.nhs.uk.