The North West AHP Network provides leadership and support for Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) across the North West region of England. It connects over 11,500 AHPs through regional meetings, an annual conference, and its website. The Network aims to promote clinical leadership, share best practices, support workforce issues, and influence strategic priorities to help AHPs deliver excellent patient care. It works closely with the North West AHP Workforce Board and is part of the larger North West Centre for Professional Workforce Development, which coordinates efforts across multiple healthcare professions. Current Network initiatives include exploring new roles for AHPs in areas like urgent care, public health, and leadership development.

1. North West AHP Network
Supporting AHPs to
Deliver Excellent Care
Sue Louth
Programme Manager – AHPs
Health Education North West
3.6.15

2. Overview
What is the North West AHP Network?
How does it function?
AHP Network website
What does a Network do?
Strategic links
Current work programmes
Challenges

3. ‘How an overlooked workforce is key to
rescuing the NHS’
The Guardian,
February 2015

4. AHPs- The invisible workforce?
So how can an AHP Network help?

5. NETWORKING
Influencing, engaging, communicating,
connecting, reconnecting, learning, sharing,
meeting, leading, improving, advocating,
creating, innovating, including,
asking, listening,
actioning, energising,
impacting, making friends

6. The North West (NW) AHP Network provides
professional leadership, advice and expertise, to
enable the national, regional and local strategic and
policy agenda to be influenced by AHPs.
The forum engages AHPs in a collaborative network,
providing support for the AHP workforce to deliver
excellent healthcare and health improvement for
patients and service users.
North West AHP Network

7. North West AHP Network
 Open to all AHPs working within the region (11,500 FTEs)
 Members can chose level of engagement
 3 network meetings per year
 Annual conference
 Operates alongside
North West AHP Workforce Board
 One of 4 networks within
Centre for Professional Workforce Development

8. Functions
• Promote and support clinical leadership and engagement for
AHPs
• Communicate and consult with AHPs
• Support NW AHP Workforce Board work programmes
• Drive innovation through sharing best practice
• Identify AHP workforce solutions to commissioning priorities
• Support implementation of national AHP work programmes
• Engage in and support other networks eg CPD Networks,
CPWD

9. North West AHP Workforce Board
 Strategic group focussing on a broad range of workforce and
education issues
 Provides strategic leadership and influence linking closely with
key stakeholders
 Members are senior AHP leaders or those with a strategic
responsibility for workforce development
 Works with the AHP network to facilitate wider engagement
in work programmes
 Accountable to Health Education North West

10. Mission Statement
 The North West AHP Workforce Board will, in collaboration
with key stakeholders, ensure that:
 The regional AHP workforce has the right skills, values and
behaviour to deliver excellent healthcare and health
improvement
 The education, training and development of AHPs is of the
highest standard, resulting in a workforce which is flexible and
adaptable to changing healthcare priorities

11.  A strategic partnership across the 4 professional networks of
AHPs, Healthcare Science, Pharmacy and Psychological
professions.
 Provides a single point of access to over 30,000 healthcare
staff across 60 professions and disciplines in the North West
who share common priorities and goals.
 Facilitates the four networks to meet NHS priorities,
professional requirements and the needs of local
commissioners.
 Establishes links with key stakeholders on behalf of its
professions
NW Centre for Professional
Workforce Development

12.  Takes a multi-professional approach to align workforce
transformation to service priorities.
 Identifies and shares innovation and good practice to support
service transformation.
 Supports the commissioning of new services and service
redesign by identifying and developing new ways of working
and new roles.
 Enables commissioners to satisfy the NHS and Public Health
Outcomes Frameworks, by supporting the multi-professional
workforce to deliver excellent healthcare & health
improvement.
NW Centre for Professional
Workforce Development

13. Network
Website
Network
Events
Network
Champions
Steering
Group
Engagement
NW
AHP Workforce
Board
Network
Website
Network
Events
Network
Champions
Steering
Group

14. Website
 2,700 registered members
 13 professional groups
 > 100 organisations
 Connecting people across the North West, Leeds, London and India!
 Information and signposting
 Service improvement database
 Events
 ‘AHPs in Touch’ - forum

19. So what does the Network do?
Influences strategic developments
Supports service redesign
Develops the workforce
Communicates
Enables the sharing of good practice

20. Connecting, Sharing, Learning

21. Supporting, Enabling, Developing

23. Strategic links
Health Education North West
Workforce transformation, planning, education
commissioning teams
Local workforce groups
Higher education providers
Placement Development Network
North West Research and Development Team
North West Leadership Academy
Academic Health Science Networks

25. Working differently to support service transformation
Exploring new ways of working to support service transformation for older people
 Have elements of generic working but maintain a strong professional identity
 Work over seven days and extended hours dependent of the needs of the service
 Use new technology to support practice and improve patient care & satisfaction
while having a positive impact on service delivery costs
 Have an increased community presence with the appropriate IT infrastructure to
support this
 Work across departmental and organisational boundaries to wrap services around
patients.
15 case studies
 Role innovation
 7 day services
 Integration of teams / services
 Band 1 -4 workforce
 Advanced practice
Current work streams

26. AHPs and Urgent Care
 Supporting HENW project – shortages of emergency care doctors
 Identification of AHP roles to support emergency and urgent care
services
 Advanced practice roles in A & E
 Alternative urgent care pathways – admission avoidance
AHPs and Public Health
 Promotion of AHPs as key practitioners in public health and
prevention agendas
 Development of training for AHPs to support use of AHP advisory
fitness for work report
 Development of bespoke training for AHPs to raise awareness, skills
and expertise in Public Health
 Wider communication strategy – The public health role of AHPs.

27. Developing clinical leaders
 Development of leadership ‘stories’
 Links to North West Clinical Leaders Network
 Multi-professional ‘Leading Transformational Culture Change’
leadership programme for senior leaders
 Multi-professional ‘Introduction to Leadership’ training
Supporting national AHP programmes of work
 NW AHP non-medical prescribing network
 Identifying good practice and innovation in rehabilitation

28. Research and Innovation
 Multi-professional group focussing on research and innovation
 3 sub-regional AHP research networks (Council for AHP Research)
 Creating cultures of research and innovation in clinical teams
 Promoting clinical academic careers
 Links with Academic Health Science Networks and NHS England
innovation team
CPD
 Identification of training needs across network
 Influence CPD provision
 Increasing awareness of systems and funding for CPD
 Raising the profile of AHPs with education and training leads

29. Recent Events
CPD and HCPC registration
Summer Conference 17/07/14 – ‘Change –
Transformation Innovation Celebration’
 AHPs and Public Health
 Supporting early career AHPs
 2015 Conference
‘Resilience in the face of
Adversity’

31. • ‘This was a fantastic event and has really
stimulated me to go back and make a
change!’
• ‘It has made me think about my own practice
and how I can improve the service that I give
to people….. I feel inspired!’

32. Future work programmes
Career pathways
Bands 1-4
Advanced practice
Supporting service development
Integrated working and generic roles
7 day services – what does this mean for the AHP
workforce?

33. Challenges
Balance between the AHP and uni-
professional voice
Engaging with less senior parts of workforce
Engaging with non NHS sectors
Time

34. I know half, and I know two
guys who each know half of
half, so together we’re
altogether. Let this be a
lesson in networking.
Jarod Kintz
If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go
with others.
African proverb

35. Thank you
Sue.louth1@srft.nhs.uk
www.ahpnw.nhs.uk
@NWAHP