Support Workforce
We recognise and value the important role our support workforce plays in delivering safe and effective care to those who access occupational therapy (OT) services across health and care. We're committed to ensuring our OT support workforce has access to appropriate education, training and development opportunities and resources to enable them to thrive.
The HEE AHP Support Worker Competency, Education and Career Development Framework was published in October 2021. We want to promote the role and contribution of the OT support workforce, amplify the voice of the OT support workforce and ensure their learning and development needs can be met.
In Autumn of 2022 we formed a project advisory group which brought together support workers, apprentices, AHP leads, OT and others that share our commitment to our support workforce. A collaborative approach for this project enabled us to have a genuine understanding of the roles, contributions and challenges our support workforce experience. A shared online workspace supports ongoing connection, discussion and collaboration alongside monthly scheduled meetings and to build a sense of community.
Relevant insights from our recent OT workforce supervision audit will also be used to inform and provide a good overview of the broader AHP Support Worker project.
This project has helped us to grow profession specific resources via our new OT Support Workforce Hub to support this framework, we'll grow meaningful resources and activities to address the learning and development needs of our support workforce and those responsible for supporting them in their roles.