A five-year plan to develop the Allied Heath Professions (AHPs) workforce and increase their profile within public health has been published, with the aim of better placing occupational therapists, radiographers, physiotherapists and dieticians to tackle health inequalities and support early intervention and prevention.

A review of AHP education provision will soon be undertaken, with the aim of ensuring the required skill mix within the profession and that workforce planning is more sustainable, according to the plan.

A National Leadership Development Programme (NLDP) to support NHS board to recognise directors and leads within the 14 varied professions will also be developed by the Scottish government.

AHPs make up the third largest workforce in NHS Scotland, and include art, music and drama therapists, speech therapists, podiatrists and paramedics.

They are often placed in community heath and care settings, and already play an important role in enabling people to live their lives to the full at home, in education and at work.

Researchers from Glasgow Caledonia University (GCU) have recently called for an urgent change to the way AHPs are trained, saying that the current 1-1 student to staff ratio in placements is contributing to a growing crisis.

Professor Katrina Bannigan, Head of Occupational Therapy, Human Nutrition and Dietetics at GCU, said a radical change to a 2-1 model is needed to support the growing demand ofor AHPs, “where there will be higher levels of frailty, complex social justice issues that impinge on health, a greater emphasis on public health and more delivery through primary care”.

The implementation plan comes three years after the UK-wide AHP strategic framework was published, which intended to develop the professions’ roles in public health, share best practice with colleagues and partners and ultimately embed preventative healthcare across all of their work.

To develop the AHP workforce and demonstrate the professions’ impact while increasing their profile within public health are key aims of the plan that will run until at least 2027.

Ensuring the professions have effective relationships with local and national system leaders, by better integrating AHPs within the local health and social care system, has also been highlighted as a key priority.  

Health and wellbeing of the workforce must also be improved, says the plan, with work already underway to support AHPs to return to the profession and an additional £2.5m soon to be funnelled into psychological support for the entire health and social care workforce.  

A national oversight group, made up of representatives from the NHS, Scottish government, Public Health Scotland, higher education institutions and professional bodies, will monitor progress of the plan and provide an annual report – the first of which is due at the end of March next year.

The report says ‘fundamentally it is AHPs in NHS boards who will be supported to drive implementation and further impact in the area of AHP public health practice’ and that professional forums in each NHS board should be strengthened to oversee local delivery.

Read more: Move to 2-1 placements, staff urge; “More questions than answers” in workforce plan

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