England’s Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAHPO), Suzanne Rastrick, has been systematically visiting the 'Vanguard’ sites that are pioneering, exploring and working with new care models (as part of her work to support the New Care Models team within NHS England).
Arising from the visits both the ‘Vanguard’ provider organisations, local commissioning leaders and AHPs across England have repeatedly asked Suzanne for a clear national strategy for AHPs - one that collectively gives direction and support to commissioners, provider organisations and AHP practitioners who are seeking to work differently to deliver the transformation required laid out in the Five Year Forward View and the GP Forward View.
To inform the potential development and therefore viability of such a strategy, informed views were sourced including evidencing the need and the key material issues. It was supported in principle by the New Care Models team, NHSE, Health Education England, NHS Improvement and Public Health England.
The CAHPO hosted an event for the Chief Executives / Chief Officers of the twelve AHP Professional Bodies on the 17 February 2016. This sought to identify whether there was consensus across the disparate professions on collective action that AHPs could take to support the delivery of what will be required in the future care landscape of England.
The event concluded that there was potential for AHPs to co-create a vision of how, with collective action, England will be different if all AHPs were used effectively in the health, social and wider care system.
How was ‘AHPs into Action’ developed?
Crowdsourcing was deployed as a method to capture the voice of AHPs in phase one and then from wider stakeholders including patients/service users, carers and the public, in phase two, resulting in over fifteen thousand contributions.
The benefit of crowdsourcing being that unlike a physical workshop, crowdsourcing provides a virtual room, in which any number of people can join, through any web-connected device, over a period of days or weeks to ensure a diverse audience have the chance to have their voice heard.
By asking specific questions and then utilising analytics to generate the insights arising from responses, this methodology has been utilised to draft a mandate for change for AHPs that is co-created and therefore co-owned. We understand that this is presently unique in Western Europe for a health policy of this sort.
AHPs into Action
‘AHPs into Action’ defines how England would be different if AHPs were genuinely used effectively (part one) and what they need to start, stop or do differently to make this happen (part two).
The emerging product, depicted in a one page plan in appendix one below, describes the:
Impact of the effective and efficient use of AHPs for people and populations
Commitment to the way services are delivered
Priorities to meet the challenges of changing care needs.
AHPs key to transforming health, care and wellbeing in England.
This section identifies the AHPs transformative potential within health, care and the wider system based on the identified impacts of the effective and efficient use of AHPs.
Fifty three case studies demonstrate current innovative solutions to the challenges faced by the health, care and wider system.
Enabling AHPs to transform health, care and wellbeing.
This section, presents a framework (see appendix two), guided by the commitments and priorities identified by AHPs themselves, for system leaders to enable AHPs to transform care.
The framework poses questions to leaders to challenge and guide thinking when developing new plans and strategies.
Specifically, Boards, STPs, Higher Education Institutions and academics are being asked to review their strategies against this framework and to use these questions as a tool to identify best practice and any gaps requiring action.
The ‘AHPs into Action’ document, and the AHP workforce, cannot offer all the solutions nor the answers to the challenges facing the system. What it does offer is a workforce that already has a multitude of skills and innovative solutions to deliver and build a social movement that is future focused. It is a workforce that is, and has been prepared to, lift a mirror to ask themselves, “what do we need to stop, start or do differently” to support health, care and wellbeing now and in the future. For some system leaders this will be the start of a new journey to discover the opportunities this workforce has to offer. For others it will provide a much needed tool which will support the recognition and utilisation of the transformative potential of AHPs.
Key messages
- The AHP workforce is the third largest in the health and care system.
- Harnessing the skills and expertise of AHPs is key to transforming the delivery of health, care and wellbeing services in England. AHPs already play an important role, developing this further to help alleviate pressures in the system is crucial for the delivery of high quality patient care.
- ‘AHPs into Action’ sets out a vision for improvements to patient care. They want their skills and expertise to be fully harnessed and incorporated into new transformation plans, currently in development.
- ‘AHPs into Action’ is a product for leaders and decision makers, to inform and inspire the system on how best to utilise this workforce within the new sustainability and transformation plans. The document demonstrates the transformative potential of AHPs, highlights innovative practice and presents a framework to support delivery of those plans.
- ‘AHPs into Action’ has been developed in partnership with AHPs, other professionals, patients and the public. It demonstrates how this skilled workforce is equipped to meet the challenges of providing health care in the future
- ‘AHPs into Action’ represents the beginning of a journey giving AHPs a greater role within the health, social and wider care system.