Health Education North West

Health Education England’s mandate recognises the importance of the integrated care agenda. It commits to work closely with the Health and Social Care sector on workforce planning, modelling, training and development, to ensure a workforce responsive to the changing models of care both now and in the future.To ensure the success of integrated Health and Social Care the workforce needs to support redesign and this can only be achieved if this runs in parallel with workforce development.

Allied Health Profession (AHP) services are often perceived as being Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm services. Anecdotally there is evidence that services have already undergone modernisation and have moved away from this model; however there is limited evidence to support this. There is also the perception that AHPs are managed and delivered in professional silos.  Again anecdotal evidence is that AHPs are working in inter and multi-professional teams, but little evidence is available to support this view.

Based on current available data, the healthcare science (HCS) workforce is understood to form approximately 5% of the workforce, yet their work is believed to provide input to around 80% of all diagnostic decisions.But wait, do we (the NHS) really understand where healthcare scientists are within our organisations, what roles they are undertaking and even how many there actually are?The answer will probably come as no surprise, but evidence shows that at organisational level there is very little knowledge about the healthcare science workforce.

There are 290 recommendations within the Francis Report which are fully outlined in the Report’s Executive Summary.This briefing is a summary of the key recommendations that Dean Royles, director of NHS Employers, has identified as having a workforce focus. Dean is a regular conference speaker, published in a number of journals and provides expert opinion in the national media. He was voted HR’s Most Influential Practitioner in 2012. 

Within most NHS hospitals the healthcare science workforce is likely to be the second largest workforce responsible for delivering diagnostic investigation and interventions. Yet their existence is still largely hidden, not only from their own individual employers, but also from the general public. The skills possessed by this workforce are critical in ensuring that the NHS is able to recover from the current financial pressures and also to deliver robust high quality services across patient pathways from primary, through to secondary and tertiary care.

The NHS North West (NW) Healthcare Science Network is a professional network created in 2004 and has been instrumental in promoting, supporting, developing and representing the Healthcare Science workforce of over 7000 scientists in the NW.This funded network represents Healthcare Scientists from over 45 different specialisms across the three divisions of Life Science, Physiological Science and Physical Science and Engineering.Locating Healthcare Scientists in the NW couldn’t be easier as a new NW Healthcare Science Directory for 2012 is now available for download at

This article focuses on the (MSC) Practitioner Training Programme (PTP). This programme is to develop the healthcare science practitioner workforce, the work of which underpins the delivery of many healthcare science services.

This information is primarily aimed at service commissioners and workforce planners, however it is also an awareness raising tool for all in respect of a small profession that is often misunderstood and, in some cases, not fully recognised in terms of its importance.Two key facts about the Orthoptist profession:

•       they save lives and make a real and highly valuable difference to the patients they treat
•       they offer value for money services and can make a significant contribution to cost savings and the QIPP agenda

With a growing number of volunteers being used within NHS trusts to carry out a range of tasks (including some tasks within clinical areas) there is a need to understand what exactly volunteers do and the contribution they make to patient care and experience, as well as how they are managed to help deliver NHS services.

The NHS Constitution enshrines for patients and staff alike “the right to be treated with dignity and respect, in accordance with your human rights”. In order to help the NHS achieve this, a set of values have been developed by patients, staff and the public to inspire passion in the NHS and to guide it into the 21st Century.These values and behaviours provide common ground for co-operation, to enable the achievement of shared aspirations; yet individual organisations are also expected to develop and refresh their own values, so that theyare tailored to meet local needs.