BAPO members have been sent an Invitation to join an online workshop on #advancedpractice
Below is a Letter from Beverley Harden, the AHP Lead for Health Education England
I am writing to announce the launch of an online workshop on multi-professional advanced and consultant practice and to ask you join the discussion.
The workshop will run, initially, for a period of two weeks until Friday 16 November. During that time we are keen to get as many people involved in the discussion so that we can develop a much clearer understanding what is happening across health and care in advanced practice now, but even more importantly, what needs to change. Your views are critical to help Health Education England, NHSE and NHSI and others develop this role, working with employers, healthcare professionals, educators and trainers, professional bodies and regulators.
Participating is easy; simply register at the following site (https://advancedpractice.clevertogether.com) and get thinking! You can observe the discussion, post ideas or comments, or simply press a voting button to express support for an idea already up there. It really is that simple. What’s more it’s anonymous and moderated by our partners, innovation agency, Clever Together.
Please could you share widely across your networks, your communications teams and encourage people to ALSO sign up to https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/advanced-clinical-practice/virtual-reference-group to stay updated after the workshop.
More background information is set out below, but once again, we’d really appreciate your participation so please do get involved.
With best wishes,
Beverley Harden
HEE AHP lead and National Lead for Multi-professional Advanced and Consultant Practice
Background
Why is this debate so important? The health and care system in England is evolving rapidly to deliver innovative models of care to meet the developing needs of individuals, families and communities. There is a growing consensus that if high quality patient care is to be sustained in the future, new and emerging roles will need to play a crucial part in the NHS.
One such group is likely to be those working at an advanced level of practice, experienced clinicians* who meet the four pillars of the Multi-professional framework for advanced clinical practice in England or the ’in development’ Multi-professional framework for consultant practice in England. This online workshop has been designed to enable us to listen to the views of all stakeholders as we in Health Education England seek to play our part in developing the workforce of the future.
The NHS (in England) Multi-professional framework for advanced clinical practice in England described the high-level imperative for a new approach to development and assurance for advanced clinical practice. This has been reiterated by many other individuals and organisations, such as the Nuffield Trust in their recent report looking at acute medical care in small hospitals. Advanced practice roles are seen across all areas of care e.g. in diagnostics, mental health, acute care, urgent and emergency care, rehabilitation, primary and community care, cancer, maternity, children’s and young people the list goes on.
But we need to take this further. We know we need to understand better the needs of employers, what the opportunities, risks and issues are for service, as well as any barriers which may exist to the development of these roles, including access to, and assurance of, the right education and training.
*In this context ‘experienced clinicians’ refers to all registered healthcare professionals, except registered medical professionals/doctors.
Our aims for this online workshop
- Develop a better and more detailed understanding of the opportunities for advanced clinical practice and especially the needs of patients and how these roles can help NHS and other employers
- Identify the challenges in developing advanced clinical practice in the workplace and what further assurance is needed in their education, training and supervision
- Consider whether some form of supporting infrastructure is needed to develop advanced practice further, what its purpose would be and what roles it should undertake
How will the debate work?
- The platform acts as an online workshop, where some broad questions are asked but in which participants lead the debate on what they see as important for advanced practice.
- Participants’ contributions are anonymised. This ensures a safe space which allows for real conversation and innovation as peers judge ideas on their merit, not their author.
- We’re seeking your views, experience and evidence. These can be on any topic or issue related to advanced clinical practice.
- We invite you to rate and comment upon the contributions of your peers, too. This is really helpful in assessing whether issues are isolated, or whether they are reflected across organisations or systems.
- As with a physical workshop, there may be strongly different views. Please respect the right of those with views differing from your own to express them.
- This debate is designed for anyone with an interest in advanced practice but especially: patient representative organisations; healthcare professionals; NHS employers; other employing organisations; professional bodies; regulators; and arms-length bodies.
- This is an independent debate: Clever Together has been asked to complete a thematic analysis to reveal priorities for HEE’s consideration.
- Colleagues at HEE will report back on how they use the results of this debate to help steer and guide their planning and change programmes.
- You will be able to see how your voice has been heard and how your inputs have been used, and by who (IT IS NOT A “BLACK HOLE” SURVEY).
- Finally, although HEE’s remit is England only, we welcome feedback from everyone, we are keen to learn from experience across the UK or internationally.
