RCOT and Accora announce partnership
Our collaboration will demonstrate the benefit of equipment
The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) and Accora, a leading manufacturer of assistive care equipment, today announce a new collaboration to support the occupational therapy profession; promote how occupational therapy-led solutions and high-quality care equipment can prevent the escalation of needs; and share knowledge, resources and tools that support occupational therapists to deliver high-quality services.
RCOT is the professional body for the occupational therapy workforce, and Accora develops assistive equipment, including specialist seating, to overcome everyday challenges and help make life easier.
The collaboration will last for 12 months and brings together the two organisations’ aims of highlighting how occupational therapy can support people best when occupational therapists see people early. The collaboration will particularly focus on providing support to independent occupational therapists.
In working together, the organisations hope to highlight how the right assistive equipment and seating solutions can help to prevent people’s needs getting worse, help them stay in their own homes for longer and reduce pressures on the wider health and social care systems.
The organisations will work together to create an Independent Practice Guide for occupational therapists and downloadable learning resources around prevention and early intervention.
Gary Waltham, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, says:
We’re pleased that Accora shares our focus on prevention and early intervention and are looking forward to working together. Helping people remain in their own homes for as long as possible and preventing them reaching crisis points is one of the key outcomes for occupational therapy. Specialist seating is a good way to support this.
Nicola Murphy, occupational therapist from Accora says:
We’re incredibly proud to be able work with RCOT to support occupational therapists both professionally and personally. Accora’s essence is “Championing dignity, enabling independence”, so becoming a partner of RCOT makes perfect sense for us. Having a longstanding history of collaboration, we’re thrilled to be able to cement this relationship and work more closely together.
Occupational therapists support people to prioritise their health and wellbeing to live healthier for longer, with a uniquely dual focus on both mental and physical health. Occupational therapy plays a vital role in health, social care and society. It enables people to have fulfilling lives at home, at work, at school, and everywhere else, through meaningful occupations: activities that support physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Occupational therapists consider all aspects of an individual and their environments and work with them to create a plan to reach their goals.
The Accora Academy trained over 16,000 individuals in 2025 and continues to build a community of like-minded, passionate professionals committed to ongoing personal and professional development.
The Academy team includes seven qualified occupational therapists and three Tissue Viability Nurses (TVNs) who provide expert clinical guidance, respond to customer queries and deliver practical training sessions, all free of charge. Their training focuses on posture and pressure care; safer moving and handling; specialist seating and profiling beds; and clinically informed assessment, helping professionals improve comfort, safety and overall wellbeing for those they support.
Occupational therapists, particularly independent practitioners, are encouraged to look out for the new resources to find out how assistive equipment and specialist seating can support the work they do with people accessing their services.
For more information about Accora, you can visit accora.care.