Workforce Strategy action plan
Action plans for each nation
We will deliver our first ever UK-wide Workforce Strategy using action plans for each of the four nations – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
In the plans, we’ll include actions that can be applied in each nation and detail:
- the position of the OT workforce using current and available data from NHS Skills for Care and the Health and Care Professions Council
- actions to transform and modernise the OT workforce
- examples of workforce modelling that can help organise skills and make sure staffing levels in services are safe.
Delivering our Workforce Strategy will be a team effort. Our action plans detail individual and collective roles and responsibilities for RCOT, our members, our stakeholder and partners, and everyone.
The table below presents our overall action plan for delivering our Workforce Strategy. Each workforce priority has actions with measures and timings. We’ll share our nation-specific plans by the end of 2024.
Workforce priority one: Optimising occupational therapy
- We will support occupational therapy practitioners to be changemakers, using their skills and knowledge to lead and co-design innovative products, interventions and services that improve people’s lives and wellbeing.
- We will champion innovative service delivery models that improve access to occupational therapy and achieve health equity for all.
| Action | Measure | When |
We will highlight the value and impact
| Number of occupational therapists
| 2027 |
We will work with our members to use
| Number of improvement journeys
| 2024 to 2027 |
We will work with our members to collect
| Number of case studies and impact
| 2024 to 2027 |
We will offer our members resources that
| Number of members who download
| 2024 to 2027 |
Together with our members, we will map where, how many and to what extent the OT workforce exists within the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital healthcare space. We will work with our members, partners and stakeholders to explore the potential for OT practitioners to be co-designers of AI and digital healthcare tools. We will use this map to monitor growth, regional distribution and demographics of the OT workforce within the AI and digital healthcare space by updating the map every three years. | Number and quality of responses to our mapping exercise. Changes in our map of how many, where and to what extent the OT workforce exists in the AI and digital healthcare space. Number and demographics (career level, regional distribution and job title) of practitioners who submit an AI and/or digital healthcare improvement journey to our Innovation hub. | 2024 to 2027 |
We will gather digital technology leaders across research, business, education and healthcare to explore and agree the role in AI and digital healthcare.
| Roundtables held with digital technology leaders across research, business, education and healthcare.
| 2024 to 2027 |
Workforce priority two: Demonstrating value and impact
- We will build our real-world and research evidence for occupational therapy and justify investment in the occupational therapy workforce by quantifying the impact.
We will work with our leaders to put the case for how and where to deploy our expertise to add the most value for people and their families, the wider health and care system and to avoid critical shortages within the OT workforce.
Action Measure When We will create a suite of resources to
help systems make best value decisions
about the positioning of the OT workforce.
This will include a data sources repository
for building business cases and
evidencing impact.
We will host a virtual platform that
shares the common information needed
for successful OT business cases and
cases for change.
We will use these examples at a national
and regional level to argue for best value
positioning of OT services in systems.Numbers of engagement with resources
by members, partners and stakeholders.
Number and themes of business cases
and cases for change in development.
Number of business cases presented
in our idea clinics and the feasibility of
the innovation idea being adopted by
the system.
Number of examples included in national
and regional reports by our members,
partners and stakeholders.
Adoption and wider roll out of
recommendations from improvement
journeys by our partners and stakeholders.
Number of improvement journey
recommendations that have led to financial
investment as reported by our members.2027 We will work with our regional and
national leaders to build on workforce
transformation conversations that
began in 2022.
From 2023, we will co-deliver workforce
reform workshops to support and
accelerate workforce transformation.
These annual workshops will build on
previous years’ workshop actions and
pledges to sustain and embed ways to
grow, reform and retain the OT workforce.10 workforce reform workshops
co-delivered annually across the four
nations of the UK.
Number of leaders at each workforce
reform workshop, measured using our
stakeholder mapping tool.
100% of the annual workforce reform
workshops will build on the actions
agreed at the previous year’s workshop.2024 to 2027 We will monitor and raise critical shortages
in occupational therapy with the relevant
government, NHS, and social care bodies.Quarterly reports presented to RCOT’s
Council, outlining our policy and public
affairs activities to raise OT workforce
shortages with our stakeholders
and partners.We will publish a new Research and
Innovation Strategy to build the capacity
and capability of our current and future
workforce to embrace and actively engage
with research and innovation.
We will work with our members, partners
and stakeholders to have a baseline
understanding of our members’ capacity
and capability for research that we’ll use to
measure changes over time.Number of downloads of our Research
and Innovation Strategy.
Number of members attending our
Research Cafés.
Number of members in our Research
Connect community.
Number and demographics of OTs
working in evidence, research and
development roles.2024 to 2027 We will collect and draw on data through
our workforce survey, membership database
and workforce maps to understand the
size, distribution, career levels and skills
mix of the OT workforce. This will allow us
to monitor and report on trends to inform
decisions about where we should be
positioned within our healthcare systems.The distribution of our members across
statutory, private, independent, social
enterprise and charity areas of practice.
The distribution of our members across
career levels (early to late) and levels of
practice (novice to consultant).
Trends in the demographic characteristics
and skills of our members.2024 to 2027 Through our events and networks,
we will host sessions on the theme of OT
workforce to share learning, celebrate
successes and stimulate provocative debate
around opportunities and challenges.Number of annual events held on the
theme of OT workforce.
Number of delegates who attend the OT
workforce sessions at Annual Conference.
Number of presentations on OT workforce
at external stakeholder events.2024 to 2027 We will work with our commercial partners
and employers to create opportunities for
OT practitioners to develop and sustain
careers across economic sectors.Tri-annual OT workforce survey and
member database to monitor the
distribution of the OT workforce across
economic sectors.
Number of independent practitioners.
Number of practitioners who self-identify as having a portfolio career.
Workforce priority three: Retention and career development
- We will support and promote the development of all occupational therapy practitioners, especially those from historically marginalised and under-represented communities, to be where they want to be at each stage in their career.
We will build our profession’s capacity, confidence and capability to incorporate leadership, learning, research and innovation into practice.
Action Measure When We will review and develop learning and
development standards for pre-registration
education and early careers. These will be
for education providers, practice-based
educators and employers to use. Our
aim will be to increase how confident
graduates and employers are in new
graduates’ capabilities.
We will work with pre-registration
placement educators to enhance their
capacity and capability to support
learners on placement.Numbers engaging with new
pre-registration learning and
development standards.
Number of providers and programmes
with RCOT accreditation.2024 to 2027 We will work with pre-registration
placement educators to enhance their
capacity and capability to support learners
on placement.Number of partners and employers
attending our Placement Cafés.2024 to 2027 We will work with employers to spread
adoption of work-based mentors to
support OT practitioners to progress
through career pathways.Number of work-based mentors among
employers of OT practitioners.2025 to 2027 We will work with education providers
to understand the current position and
needs of our academic educator workforce.
This will help us build the case to expand
the capacity and capability of educators
in delivering pre-registration and postregistration OT education programmes.Number of academic educators who
respond when we’re scoping their needs.
Quality of and themes from responses
to our scoping work.2024 to 2027 We will revise the Career Development
Framework.
We will work with our members to develop a strategy which sets out the actions we will take to support the learning, development and career growth of our members.
We will seek to understand how our Career
Development Framework best supports
employers and members to progress their
career. We will support our members and
employers to use the Career Development
Framework to nurture practice at all levels.Revised Career Development Framework
published.
Review of number of active users of the
Career Development Framework.
Evaluation of the active users’
experiences of using the Career
Development Framework.2024 to 2027 We will update our supervision guidance to
build the confidence and capability of the
occupational therapy workforce to engage
in and benefit from supervision.
We will publish resources to explain how
to use the supervision guidance.Numbers engaging with the supervision
guidance.
Reported experiences of using the
supervision guidance and resources.2024 to 2027
Workforce priority four: Effective workforce planning
- We will empower the OT workforce to contribute to, access and use the workforce planning data and intelligence available to them.
We will empower practitioners to use available data and intelligence to make informed decisions – so we are in the right place, offering the right service to meet local population need.
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