News

Allied health professionals (AHPs) from across the organisation came together at Mary Ward House, Euston, on Thursday 31 October to understand our strategic objectives along with the ‘AHPs Deliver’ strategy for England. They learned what and how AHPs can contribute to these to optimise care for our service users, communities, and for our colleagues.

North London AHPs: strengths and opportunities for growth
Suzie Willis, AHP Lead (pictured above), welcomed colleagues by recognising what matters to AHP colleagues across the organisation, including the strengths of the North London AHP community and the opportunities to build on these, to inform the development of a shared purpose throughout the day.  She reflected on our progress so far, including appointment of a Physical Health Therapies Lead to spearhead development of an exciting new Trust-wide Physical Therapies service, providing physiotherapy and speech and language therapy for acute adult inpatients. 

Jinjer Kandola, Chief Executive (pictured below left), then introduced the Trust context, giving a brief update on recent developments in the creation of our new Trust and engaging with AHPs on how we continue to develop this as part of the North London Way.  She summarised that we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to change mental healthcare in North London and deliver better services for local people.  

Anti-racism and co-production key to AHP strategy nationally
This was followed by a keynote address from Rachel Wakefield, Mental Health Portfolio Lead from the Office of the Chief AHP for England. She emphasised that the work that AHPs do in mental health, learning disabilities and autism is recognised and valued at the highest levels of the NHS and it is important that we are front and centre of mental health transformation work, such as the Culture of Care programme.

She advised that AHPs have a critical role to play in quality and safety and must embrace this; helping other professions to understand what we bring, speaking up around risks and issues, being open to applying for non-traditional roles, and growing our evidence base with data in addition to anecdotes and stories. Highlighting anti-racism and co-production as the overarching principles of the AHPs Deliver strategy and the link between an inclusive and psychologically safe culture and quality of care, Rachel urged AHPs to consider this as the basis for a local strategy.

The opening session ended with an opportunity to recognise AHPs who have completed preceptorship programmes across the Trust (some pictured below right).

Focus on improving outcomes and retaining AHP staff
The following sessions of the event focused on what and how AHPs can do to deliver high-quality care closer to home; address health inequalities and improve outcomes for all; and ensure that AHPs are fully engaged, well-led and retained in the organisation. Each discussion was opened by a member of the executive team - Natalie Fox, Deputy Chief Executive, presented the Patient Benefits Case and Ben Browne, Chief People Officer, presented on the North London Way.

Underlining the importance of research, data and quality improvement
The final session focused on building capacity and capability to drive AHP data and digital, quality improvement and research engagement at every level.  The session was opened by Prabha Vijayakumar, the Chief AHP Information Officer at NHSE, who explained her role and programme of work, calling on AHPs to get involved.  A speed-consulting session, facilitated by colleagues from Data and Digital, QI and Research functions in the Trust as well as by Prabha followed.

The day concluded with presentation of a best poster or publication prize, voted for by attendees, and awarded to Jessica Oglethorpe for a quality improvement project to increase service users weekly contact with OT by 50% across HMP Brixton.

Attendees enjoyed being involved in developing the AHP strategy, hearing from speakers and networking with each other throughout the day…as well as celebrating with cake!