Allied Health Professions Education and Workforce Policy Review: National Strategic Oversight Group minutes: September 2022

Attendees and apologies

• Carolyn McDonald, Scottish Government
• Anne Wallace, Scottish Government
• Alison Moore, Scottish Government
• Jess McPherson, Scottish Government
• Kim Lynch, Scottish Government
• Abby Campbell, Scottish Government
• Sean Torrens, Scottish Government
• Alistair Reid, Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)
• Sara Smith, Queen Margaret University
• Anita Simmers, Council of Deans of Health
• Lyndsay Turner, Scottish Government
• Joan Pollard, Scottish Directors of AHPs (SDAHP)
• Helen Raftopoulos, Scottish Funding Council (SFC)
• Brendon Edmonds, The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Maggs Thomson, Health And Social Care Partnership Representative
• Barbara Morton, Scottish Government
• Jamie Begbie, Scottish Government

Apologies 

• David Wylie, NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
• Fiona Coutts, Academic Heads
• Karen Wilson, NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
• Rebecca Wright, Scottish Government
• Nyla Shah, Scottish Government
• Duncan Condie, Scottish Funding Council (SFC)
• Kay Sandilands, NHS Lanarkshire
• Jamie Hunt, The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Alison Keir, Allied Health Professions Federation Scotland (AHPFS)
• Valerie Blair, NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
• Margot McBride, Allied Health Professions Federation Scotland (AHPFS)

Items and actions

Welcome and action points from previous meeting

The minutes from the last meeting held on 14 June 2022 were agreed as accurate.

Update on previously agreed action points:

• representative from Health and Social Care Partnership to be added to the terms of reference (TOR) once finalised - complete 
• workforce strategy presentation slides to be shared to group – complete and available on objective connect 
• the workforce and recruitment subgroup to consider allied health professions (AHP) career promotion at school level at next meeting – ongoing 
• NHS Education Scotland (NES) to present on their work stream as they have practice education leads doing work on career promotion in schools with AHP advisors – ongoing, this is being considered for a future meeting
• Scottish Governmenr (SG) to look at coordinating sessions on lived experience with those working at advanced practice level and wider – ongoing, this will be picked up at the advancing practice subgroup meeting

Presentation on National Care Service (NCS)

Jamie Begbie and Barbara Morton from SG National Care Service team gave presentation to provide context for the group in terms of the policy landscape that surrounds the review. The NCS (Scotland) Bill has now been introduced to Parliament. 

Discussion was had after the presentation and the following points were noted:

• AHPs cut across all areas within the NCS vision and therefore there is a huge amount of interest in this from an AHP perspective
• there are some things that are working well in service at the moment so there is a plea that the NCS build upon these, rather than doing a full redesign. There is an ask that this is included in the messaging around the NCS
• there should be more focus on early intervention, prevention and rehabilitation
• the group can signpost the NCS team to those with lived experience of accessing or delivering social care support to be included in the co-design
• the NCS team asked that the group advise Parliament of what they like and dislike within the bill

Action point:

• NCS presentation slides to be shared with the group by 9 November 2022 

Subgroups and highlight report updates

All subgroups have now met, and the highlight reports from the subgroups have been shared to make sure that any linkages are identified. The representatives from each subgroup provided feedback that work is progressing and recommendations are being identified. 

A summary of the following highlight reports were presented to the group:

• student focus groups
• newly qualified practitioners, advanced practitioners and consultants, board practice education leads

Key points for the review

The group used a jamboard to capture thoughts on what they consider to be the key points from the focus groups and subgroups. A number of points were highlighted including the importance of:

• collaboration 
• data 
• marketing of professions 

Action point:

• keep the jamboard open for further comment until 16 September 2022 for further comment 

Any other business

The next meeting is scheduled for 9 November 2022 from 10am to 3pm.