Allied Health Professionals

The Allied Health Professional (AHP) Leadership Team plays a vital role in representing, championing, and developing the diverse AHP workforce within the Trust. This includes occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, dietitians, prosthetists, and AHP support staff. The team provides expert guidance on scope of practice, professional standards, and fitness to practice, while also advising on the effective use of AHP knowledge, skills, and expertise across the organisation.

Led by the Trusts Strategic Lead for Allied Health Professions, the leadership team includes a Head and Deputy Head of Allied Health Professions within each clinical directorate, as well as a dedicated Practice Development, Education, and Placements Team (detailed in the attached document).

As an integral part of senior leadership teams across the Trust, the AHP Leadership Team ensures that the perspectives and needs of AHPs are clearly represented. They actively contribute to Trust-wide forums, project groups, and strategic meetings, helping to shape policy and drive improvements in patient care.

Currently, the Leadership Team comprises professionals from occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech and language therapy, with a commitment to growing and supporting all AHP disciplines within the Trust.

All AHPs are required to be registered with the statutory regulatory body, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

The HCPC is responsible for protecting patients by maintaining a register of members, setting standards of education and training performance and proficiency, and investigating complaints.

The HCPC publishes the standards of conduct, performance and ethics that registrants must keep to and the standards of proficiency for each professional group.

Details about the standards of proficiency can be found on the HCPC website.

Practice development and support is vital to the development of our staff, their clinical effectiveness, and patient safety and satisfaction.

There are a variety of methods used to aid practice development including:

• peer support
• clinical forums
• personal study
• research.

Practice education or placements are an integral part of the pre-registration education of AHPs.

In most programmes it constitutes approximately half of the duration of the course, (a minimum of 1,000 hours) and is a requirement for registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) who regulate the AHP professions.

Experience gained on practice placements ensures that new graduates develop into safe, competent and reflective practitioners. It ensures they are equipped to work in a range of health care settings and are eligible for registration with the HCPC.

We are committed to practice placement education and support the education of student AHPs within the trust. We expect staff to facilitate student placements within their workplace. KMPT offers placements to AHP students from local universities.

Within the South East region there are two main providers of AHP programmes:

• Canterbury Christ Church University (occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy)
• Brighton (occupational therapy and physiotherapy).

We mainly support student placements from these two higher education institutions; however we do consider requests from other universities and will accommodate if able to. We also offer AHP placements to paramedics who require a mental health experience.

Preceptorship provides structured support to newly registered professionals entering at the NHS. It facilitates their development during the first twelve months of their time in post.

We are committed to supporting newly registered staff. Inter-professional action learning sets are provided to support and develop confidence in practice. This takes place through group discussion and structured learning for any newly registered practitioner who is new to the trust and who is undergoing the process of preceptorship.

AHP profession specific packages have been established in line with professional bodies to help practice and consolidate competence and enhance confidence. Preceptorship has been integrated with probation, supervision (professional/clinical), continuing professional development (CPD), and personal training needs.

If you are an AHP who has not practiced for more than two years and wish to return to the profession, you will be expected to meet the requirements of registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

Please contact the HCPC for the requirements of return to practice.

As part of this process you may be asked to complete some practice experience. Please forward any enquires to the AHP practice development/placement coordinator.