Our workforce vision and priorities

Our vision is for an expanded occupational therapy workforce – positioned to have maximum impact in improving people's health and quality of life

Our workforce vision

Our vision is for an expanded occupational therapy workforce – positioned to have maximum impact in improving people's health and quality of life.

By 2035 we will have an occupational therapy workforce that is:

confident and skilled in championing inclusion and advocating for occupational justice, focusing on the right of every person to have the choice and opportunity to engage in a diverse range of activities and roles
based primarily within communities working closely with local populations to meet their health and care needs and ensuring that services are accessible to everyone
positioned to focus on prevention and early interventions, minimising the need for crisis interventions and dependency on care services
putting occupations at the forefront of their practice, empowering people to do the occupations that they value, manage their health and care needs and contribute to society.

Our workforce priorities

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
champion innovative service delivery models that improve access to occupational therapy and achieve health equity for all.

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
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 occupational therapy workforce.

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
build our profession’s capacity, confidence, and capability to incorporate leadership, learning, research, and innovation into practice.

Effective workforce planning

Further information

Vision and priorities

Action plan

Action plan - Cymru-Wales

Action plan - England

Action plan - Northern Ireland

State of the occupational therapy workforce in Wales

Bibliography

Useful terminology and language

Frequently asked questions