O6

O6

ASSESSING OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR GROWING THE ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL (AHP) WORKFORCE IN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH SPECIALTY IN THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE (NHS)

V. Parsons¹, G. Ntani², J. O’Neill³, A. Turner⁴, V. Small⁴, I. Madan¹

¹Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

²University of Southampton, UK

³National School of OH, NHS Health Education England, London, UK

⁴NHS England, London, UK

BACKGROUND

The OH specialty is under pressure to attract, train and retain a sufficient number of skilled health professionals.

AIM

To scope opportunities and challenges for expanding the multidisciplinary NHS OH workforce.

METHODS

Mixed methods comprising:

1. Workforce profile survey advertised via NHS Health at Work Network and other communication channels.
2. Database searching via National Institute of Health and Social Care and Cochrane Work journals libraries
3. Focus group sessions using purposive and snowball sampling (advertised via NHS Health at Work Network) and an in-person conference workshop

RESULTS

1. Response rate 24% (30/127) NHS OH departments contributed data which highlighted differences in clinical and job functions across health professions, including AHPs.
2. Ten interventional studies and two systematic reviews were identified. These reported favourable evidence of the effectiveness of multidisciplinary non-OH teams delivering work-orientated support and it can be clinically- and cost-effective to upskill non-OH personnel to deliver specific OH support.
3. Fifty participants took part. Cultural and structural challenges were found to impede opportunities to expand the OH AHP workforce including poor comprehension of the clinical capabilities of AHPs; limited specialist OH training for AHPs and lack of established career transition pathways. Despite systemic issues, some local workforce strategies were shown to be effective including creating bespoke AHP OH roles.

CONCLUSION

While we found enthusiasm to expand the NHS AHP clinical workforce.  Strategic workforce planning decisions raise important legal, and regulatory issues which need consideration. A series of targeted recommendations were proposed.