Department of Health and Social Care
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A new flexible career path for Allied Health Professionals
Allied health professionals (AHPs) will have the chance to achieve more in their careers under a range of new measures and reforms announced today by Health Minister Ann Keen.
As one of the key elements of Lord Darzi's NHS Next Stage Review, Modernising Allied Health Professions Careers: A Competence-Based Framework, sets out new web-based tools for AHPs that will help them plan a more flexible career path.
This is a move towards a competence-based model for AHP careers that focuses on the skills required for patient-centred services, rather than the professions themselves. This will allow AHPs to develop the skills they need to take on new and extended roles in their profession.
Managers and teams can use the framework to describe the full range of competences required to meet patient needs. By identifying roles by competences rather than professional groups, service planners and managers can consider new styles of provision and role developments for AHPs.
Health Minister Ann Keen said:
"These tools provide a win-win situation - they are good for patients but they are also good for AHPs. It has always been clear to me how incredibly important AHPs are to health and social care. They are key to health promotion whether advising on diet, exercise or supporting children to communicate so they can access education. They also have a key role in the housing, education and social care sectors. They are truly invaluable to the health service."
Karen Middleton, Chief Allied Health Professional Officer, said:
"In England we have ambitious plans for improvements to the health and well being of the population and this is nowhere more evident than in the Darzi Next stage review of the NHS. The Allied Health Professionals are critical to delivering the transformation of health and social care we wish to see for the public, patients, clients and their families."
Note to Editors:
1. You can find copies of Modernising Allied Health Professions Careers: A Competence-Based Framework on the Department of Health website: http://www.dh.gov.uk.
2. The tools are available on the Skills for Health website: http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/
3. There are 76,928 allied health professionals working in the NHS across 14 disciplines that are often the first-contact practitioner across the community and hospitals settings.
