Effective Use of AHPs to support people to stay well at home
Deploying a greater proportion of the AHP workforce in integrated teams and hubs in primary and community services is central to delivering the Accelerated Cluster Development Programme.
On the 24th of January 2023, to demonstrate the commitment to community teams and a preventative community-based care designed to support people to stay well and independent, the Minister for Health and Social Services announced a £5 million investment to create additional community and primary based registered AHPs and support worker posts. This is to increase the capacity of AHPs as an integral, but underutilised, part of community teams.
The Strategic Programme for Primary Care is providing professional leadership and governance framework to service this Additional AHP Investment. An All Wales AHP Professional Collaboratives Strategic Group (PC SG) chaired by the National AHP Lead for Primary and Community Care, has been set up to support the delivery of substantive, long-term change to an integrated and cohesive model of AHP transformation across Primary and Community Care.
The purpose of this Strategic Group to drive, facilitate, enable and support the delivery of projects that demonstrate the value and impact of AHPs across Primary and Community Care, by collaborating and agreeing key elements around the development of the resources including but not limited to:
• £5 million AHP Fund
• Regional Integration Fund projects
• Local Health Board projects and initiatives
The PCSG also supports operationalisation of AHP Professional Collaboratives on an All Wales basis; providing a national forum for discussion, national and peer support, identifying the most effective solutions for the local and national context.
The All Wales AHP Professional Collaboratives Strategic Group is accountable, and reports directly to the National AHP Planning Oversight Forum, Welsh Government. Learning from this group is shared through to Strategic Programme for Primary Care (SPPC) Programme Board and where appropriate to National Primary Care Board.