Primary and community care Allied Health Professions
The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Framework: Looking Forward Together sets out the AHP strategic response to A Healthier Wales and utilises the Quadruple Aim as an organising concept to describe the transformation required aligned to The Primary Care Model for Wales.
It identifies AHPs need to be utilised more effectively to inspire and enable people to lead healthier lives, be more easily and directly accessible, and work at the top of their ability with visible and transformational leadership. With ‘strong primary care’ at the heart of everything that they do.
This translates into the AHP ambition in Wales, for well-integrated services, rooted in the community, with the full range of practitioner levels and prudent optimisation of AHP skill set.
We need to create sustainable models of delivery that support multiple stakeholders. Deploying AHPs from a well – integrated, whole system workforce planning basis to deliver the high quality, high value services required.
With planning and delivery of primary and community care AHP services – which may be include at general practice, cluster, or regional level – being supported and informed by:
- Population needs / including health inequalities informing focus of attention and resource
- A skilled workforce – with requirement and development needs understood and actioned
- Implementation of ‘What good looks like’ / Frameworks and best practice – linking across to the National Clinical Framework
- Utilising data with purpose – transferring data to knowledge to focus attention and resource, and demonstrate the difference AHPs make
Who are Allied Health Professions in Wales?
Allied Health Professions (AHPs) are 13 individual professions in Wales regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC):
- Art Therapists
- Dietitians
- Orthotists
- Podiatrists
- Speech and Language Therapists
- Music Therapists
- Occupational Therapists
- Paramedics
- Practitioner Psychologists
- Drama Therapists
- Orthoptists
- Physiotherapists
- Prosthetists
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Allied Health Professional Collaboratives
AHP Professional Collaboratives provide the architecture to explore and develop workforce plans that deliver the high quality and high value services needed to deliver the Primary Care Model for Wales. AHP Professional Collaboratives cross boundaries within organisations and all sectors related to health and well-being. To do this there needs to be a shared vision of what an AHP Professional Collaborative is and what support is required in order to operationalise the concept into a functioning AHP collaborative group.
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Primary and community care AHP workforce guidance: Organising principles to optimise utilisation
This guidance provides the organising principles / actions required for the whole health and social care system, to optimise the Allied Health Professions (AHPs) offer across Primary and Community Care, ensuring we create sustainable models of delivery that support multiple stakeholders.
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All Wales primary and community care Allied Health Professions leadership group
The All Wales Primary and Community Care AHP Leadership Group is chaired by the National AHP Lead for Primary and Community Care and exists to support collaborative, dynamic, cohesive, respected and high level leadership for the AHP professions in Wales.
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Additional Allied Health Professions investment
Information on how the £5m Allied Health Professions investment is being utilised across Wales to support the implementation of the Primary Care Model for Wales through multi-professional, place based collaborative working.
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Primary and Community Care Compendium of roles and models (PCCC)
A once for Wales digital platform for the sharing of innovative and unique models of primary and community care provision. It has been produced on behalf of the Strategic Programme for Primary Care (SPPC) in collaboration with Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW).
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Allied Health Professions workforce transformation repository
The AHP Workforce Transformation Repository is a curated collection of resources designed to help AHPs lead and drive impactful workforce and service transformation across all areas of health and care.
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Allied Health Professions best practice guides
This briefing paper forms part of a series of AHP ‘Best Practice Guides’ across a number of key focus areas and pathways. Designed to support an understanding of AHPs skillsets and roles, and highlight key AHPs involved, in order to maximise their effective utilisation. Developed in collaboration with expert stakeholders, leaders in their respective fields, and grounded in evidence and value-based practice.
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Allied Health Professions framework
In 2023, four full day face to face AHP Roadshows were undertaken across Wales. The impact of these was to raise the AHP identity, highlight innovation and stimulate engagement opportunities to create a strong AHP community. The roadshows also provided the for a for supporting understanding of the AHP transformation ambition in Wales with data collected through action learning sessions with the National AHP Lead for Primary and Community Care informing national and regional next steps to support this. You can view the slide pack from the roadshow here.