Allied Health Professionals Faculty

Strategic collaboration and promotion of the AHP workforce within the Humber and North Yorkshire ICS, to enable our population to start well, live well and age well.

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What is an Allied Health Professional (AHP)?

The term Allied Health Professionals represents 15 different occupations:

Art Therapist
Dietitians
Drama Therapist
Music Therapist
Occupational Therapist
Operating Department Practitioners
Orthoptists
Osteopaths
Paramedics
Physiotherapists
Podiatrists
Prosthetists and Orthotists
Diagnostic Radiographers
Therapeutic Radiographers
Speech and Language Therapists

AHPs are the third largest workforce in the NHS and provide system-wide care to assess, treat, diagnose and discharge patients across all organisations. AHPs are involved in managing patients’ care of all ages by using a holistic approach, to start well, live well and age well.

Who Are We?

The Humber and North Yorkshire (HNY) AHP Council comprises Chief Allied Health Professionals or senior AHP representatives from each of the partner organisations within HNY. The Council is an expert reference group for the ICS offering an AHP perspective or solutions to support system priorities. We communicate at National, Regional and local levels, participating in National projects relevant to HNY. The Council is able to link between local people, local AHPs, the Integrated Care Board (ICB), NHS England and the Professional bodies. Our strategic goals are:

To strengthen the AHP profile
Demonstrate the value that the AHP workforce can offer
Deliver quality care and improve health and well-being
Leadership and talent management
Deliver quality and evidence based research
Sustainability and the green agenda
To ensure quality educational opportunities and a workforce that is able to adapt to meet future needs

The Humber and North Yorkshire AHP faculty

The Humber and North Yorkshire AHP Faculty commenced in January 2021. Faculties were introduced by Health Education England (HEE) to support the delivery of the Long-Term Plan, People Plan and HEE’s 2019 Mandate. With the HNY AHP Council giving strategic direction, the HNY AHP Faculty is the engine-room. The Faculty work with health and social care providers (including the private and voluntary sector) and education providers to deliver system-wide collaboration. The faculty supports and delivers a collective approach to increasing placement capacity, supporting Continuing Professional Development (CPD), developing Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP) roles, building partnerships with education providers and addressing other local training and education priorities to improve the workforce activity across the Integrated Care System (ICS).

Humber and North Yorkshire AHP Faculty Staff

HNY AHP Council Chair – Angela Green
Co –Chairs – Liz Audsley
Project Lead – Keiley Somers
Project support manager – Jessica Royle

Humber and North Yorkshire AHP Faculty Priorities

Apprenticeships
Equality and Diversity
International Recruitment
Greener AHPs
Placement Expansion
Recruitment and Retention
Research and Innovation
Return to Practice
Support Workforce

Humber and North Yorkshire AHP Faculty Aims

To grow a thriving, diverse and inclusive AHP workforce.
To communicate and promote the AHP value across all aspects of care.
To provide a voice for the AHP workforce, sharing our value and expertise and working collaboratively with our stakeholders.
To collaborate with the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector.

Apprenticeships

There is a National focus on the level 3 Senior Healthcare Support Worker apprenticeship and the level 5 Assistant Practitioner apprenticeship. The work carried out nationally by HEE will result in a provider framework for employers and HEE state that this will ensure:

High quality patient care, through education focussed on patient needs and care pathways,
Clearer education pathways for allied health support workers, and progress on to further education opportunities without barriers,
Consistent education provision through alignment with relevant competency frameworks, and,
Development of occupation and/or profession specific Assistant Practitioner apprenticeships in response to employer demand.

We have a sub-group within the Faculty looking closely at apprenticeships across Humber and North Yorkshire who meet regularly.

Additional Information:

Return to practice

Health Education England (HEE) HCPC Return to Practice Programme supports AHP who have been out of practice for 2 or more years or those who did not register within 5 years of qualifying. The programme will support the returnees through their period of learning/practice requirement (between 30 and 60 days dependent on years out of practice) and support with undertaking supervised practice.

Those looking to return to practice can use the following form to express their interest in the programme.

Funding is available but you must register on the HEE return to practice programme. HEE will pay up to £800 to the returner to support their return to practice and eligible organisations that hosts a returner can receive up to £500. For more information please visit Health Education England.

Recruitment and Retention

To increase the AHP workforce, we must improve our recruitment and retention across Humber and North Yorkshire. We are collecting data on our current AHP workforce and the skill gaps we have to determine our future workforce needs. We are looking into our development and progression opportunities for AHPs in Humber and North Yorkshire compared with regional and National opportunities. We are working with our colleagues in HEE to implement a preceptorship programme across the region.

We want to make more people aware of the AHP profession, we regularly attend careers fair across Humber and North Yorkshire. Please get in contact if we can help.

Please see some useful documents below:

International Recruitment

The ‘We are the NHS; People Plan 2020/2021’ encourages recruitment internationally but recognises the need for this process to be ethical.

One of our key aims is to grow our workforce however we don’t want to forget the person behind the process. We are currently working with our international recruitment sub-group to recognise the challenges and barriers the person may face, to make positive changes to our process. We are learning from the experiences of previously internationally recruited AHPs to grow and improve our practice.

Additional Information:

Support Workforce

AHP Support workers are part of the un-registered workforce and work alongside registered AHPs to provide patient care. HEE produced the Allied Health Professions’ Support Worker Competency, Education, and Career Development Framework and we are working towards implementing this across Humber and North Yorkshire alongside our regional and National colleagues.

We meet regularly with our Faculty Support Workforce sub-group to understand the challenges faced in implementing this framework and supporting our support workforce to develop in their role. For more information about the framework visit Health Education England

Research and Innovation

Following the launch of the new AHP Strategy for England, looking to the future we will be looking more in depth into research and innovation, including the Allied Health Professions’ Research and Innovation Strategy for England HEE Allied Health Professions Research and Innovation Strategy.

Greener AHPs

Following the launch of the new AHP Strategy for England, looking to the future we will be looking more in depth into greener AHPs.

Equality and Diversity

Following the launch of the new AHP Strategy for England, looking to the future we will be looking more in depth into equality and diversity.

For more information visit NHS England’s Allied Health Professional webpage.

Get involved

If you are an AHP or AHP support worker in Humber and North Yorkshire and would like to be a part of the Council or Faculty please email hyp-tr.hnyahpfaculty@nhs.net.

Join our workspace on Future NHS by searching Humber and North Yorkshire AHP Faculty – any problems please email for an invitation.

Allied Health Professionals Faculty