Support workers play an integral role in supporting our Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) to deliver safe and effective care. They work in a variety of healthcare settings and are integral to supporting people’s health and well-being.

As with any staff group, they must have access to further learning and career progression to support service development and perhaps more importantly, to enable them to thrive. However, barriers to progression do exist, often due to inconsistent descriptions of roles, a lack of defined competencies, poorly understood development routes and a lack of access to further learning.

The Allied Health Professions’ Support Worker Competency, Education, and Career Development Framework¹ was launched in October 2021. Designed to enable employers, networks, integrated care systems (ICSs) and services effectively plan progress and utilise their AHP support workforce. The framework guides training, education, and competencies.  Focusing on recruitment and progression. The aim is to harness the potential of the AHP support workers, ensuring they can achieve standardised levels of competency and access relevant training and development. Resulting in the standardisation of roles.

The framework supports three linked workforce strategies 1) Recruiting local people directly into AHP entry-level roles, where vacancies exist. 2) Developing existing support staff so they can perform at the top of their scope of practice. 3) Creating clear end-to-end progression routes linked to formal education programmes, including access to AHP degrees.

Focusing on three main stages of AHP support worker competency, education, and career development: focused around eight domains.

The Framework Stages

Support worker – Typically band 2 or equivalent

basic factual knowledge and understanding of their field of work

 

This is considered the entry-level stage for support workers and thus describes the minimum education and competency requirements.

At this stage in the framework, support workers will use general skills and work under the close supervision of registered staff. They will carry out straightforward clinical, technical, scientific, and/or administrative tasks, for example performing housekeeping tasks, stock control or delegated clinical tasks.

Senior support worker – Typically band 3 or equivalent

knowledge and understanding of facts, principles, processes and general concepts in their field of work

 

Senior support workers will be expected to utilise advanced skills under the supervision of registered staff and may also work alone, with access to support.

Responsibilities include the direct delivery of clinical, technical, or scientific activities. They may demonstrate their duties to other support workers, students, or less experienced staff.  Senior support workers are expected to contribute to service improvement.

It is possible for support staff with relevant qualifications and wider experience to enter this stage of the framework. It is also the first point from which existing support staff, with sufficient qualifications, can apply for pre-registration degrees. At this stage of the framework, staff should be encouraged and supported to acquire an occupationally specific level 3 qualification, such as the Senior Healthcare Support Worker apprenticeship.

Assistant practitioner – Typically band 4 or equivalent

factual and theoretical knowledge of principles, procedures, processes

 

Assistant practitioners work at a level above that of healthcare support workers demonstrating an understanding of factors that influence health and ill-health, for example, anatomy and physiology. Support workers at this level will possess enhanced skills in their area of work. They may provide care to service users with more complex needs and assess progress.

The specialist nature of assistant practitioner roles and levels of responsibility means that direct entry at this level is unlikely.

1. formal knowledge and experience

The minimum essential formal qualifications and experience required for AHP support workers entering each stage.

Focusing on 1) Education 2) Experience and 3) Values.

       2.    Supporting service users

Supporting service users and their families throughout their care, promoting health and wellbeing, and understanding the wider health and social care system.

Focusing on 1) Positive relationships 2)Person-centred care 3) Prevention 4) Person-centred care 5) Health Promotion 6) Supporting Behavioural Change 7) Dignity and Privacy 8) Health and social care system 9) Legal, and ethical responsibilities 10) Practice frameworks 11) Team and partnership working 12) Role awareness 13) Service awareness.

3. clinical, technical and scientific roles and responsibilities

Knowledge and practice, support and interventions are required to safely assist service users to meet their optimum potential.

Focusing on 1) Underpinning knowledge 2) Role boundaries 3) Role boundaries 4) Time management 5) Consent 6) Tasks and responsibilities 7) Prioritising care 8) Planning and evaluating care 9) Reporting, referring and escalating concerns 10) Signposting 11) Equipment 12) Emergency care

     4.    Communication and information management

Communicate clearly and accurately using a range of written, verbal, and non-verbal methods, maintaining confidentiality and protection of data, and overcoming physical, sensory, cognitive and language barriers to understanding. Barriers to understanding can include emotional and social barriers.

Focusing on 1) Confidentiality and data protection 2) Record keeping 3) Methods of communication 4) Effective communication

5. Safe and inclusive environments

Working within organisational policies and procedures to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion, safeguarding, protection and personal wellbeing, and safety, along with the importance of infection control, duty of care and candour.

Focusing on 1) Health and safety 2) Policies and procedures 3) Risk management 4) Incidents and complaints 5) Safeguarding 6) Infection prevention and control 7) Duty of care and candour 8) Respects diversity 9) Awareness of subconscious bias 10) Recognises and reacts to discrimination 11) Widens access to care.

6. Research and service improvement

Participation and undertaking of research, audit, evaluation, and service improvement projects.

Focusing on 1) Service improvement and 2) Research activity.

7. Leadership and management

Understanding the importance of being a role model, time management, identifying areas for self-improvement, and supervising others.

Focusing on 1) Professionalism 2) Role modelling 3) Leadership 4) Supervising others 5) Developing others.

8. Personal and professional values and behaviours

The values required to work in health and social care, and personal learning and self-development.

Focusing on 1) Ways of working 2) Health and wellbeing 2) Role of learning and development 4) Self-development and learning 5) Appraisals 6) Personal development plans.

How are we implementing the framework at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust?

One-off pump prime funding was offered to NHS trusts in England in 2021/22 to implement the framework, with additional funding offered to the AHP Faculties to support a coordinated approach across integrated care systems (ICS). At the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) we are applying this framework to aspire and guide us, enabling our AHP support workers to realise their potential. Working with colleagues within the Black Country ICS we have agreed on a number of workstreams that will result in improved access to education and training for all support workers across the AHP services, ensure growth and retention of the support workforce, improve the diversity of the support workforce and create developmental opportunities for support workers such as band five secondments. These secondments will provide our support workforce with the opportunity to lead AHP support workforce mapping, and contribute to the development of high-quality training and rewarding career pathways for support workers across the professions. Truly encouraging our AHP support workers to realise their potential, putting them firmly within the AHP workforce ensuring employers commit to their progression and utilisation of their skills.

Summary

The AHP Support Worker Competency, Education, and Career Development Framework provides support workers with a clear and standardised framework for job roles, progression, and development. Highlighting the importance of the support worker role and the potential that can be realised within this workforce.  The framework describes three distinct roles and the education and training required for each role and the competencies attached to them.

 

References

1. NHS Health Education England. Allied Health Professions’ Support Worker Competency, Education, and Career Development Framework.; 2021. Accessed July 11, 2022. https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/allied-health-professions/enable-workforce/developing-role-ahp-support-workers/ahp-support-worker-competency-education-career-development