Celebrating Advancing Practice Week 2023

National Advancing Practice Week 2023 took place from 1–10 November. We joined colleagues at the National Advancing Practice Conference and launched and promoted various resources to support and celebrate professionals in the South West. Activities included:

The National Advancing Practice Conference

The National Advancing Practice Conference took place on Wednesday and Thursday. On show were some remarkable examples of advanced practice innovation and developments from across the country. Thank you to all who joined us for the event; it was inspiring to see so many delegates and presenters representing the South West region.

For those with access to the conference platform, all the sessions were recorded and are now available to view. Below is a list of sessions and videos showcasing the exceptional work in the South West.

• Towards Sustainable Advanced Practice Supervision: Our Advanced Practice Education and Training Development Lead, Steve Blakeway, took part in a session exploring the core capabilities of practitioners supervising colleagues as they progress to advanced-level practice.
• Diverse Workforce to Tackle Health Inequalities: Our Regional Deputy Lead and Chair for the Advanced Practice Inclusivity group, Girish Lakhanpal, discussed health inequalities and co-hosted a session with Dr Habib Naqvi, the Chief Executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory.
• Developing our National Voice: Our Advance Practice ICS Lead for Dorset, Sue Close, joined other ICS leads from around the country to promote the value of an ICB-wide advanced practice role and discuss the benefits of system-wide collaborative working.
• Primary Care Advanced Practice Governance – The Journey So Far in the South West: Steve Blakeway, Advanced Practice Education and Training Development Lead, and Lou Buckle, Advanced Practice Education & Development Specialist Lead, shared the success in getting 100% of South West primary care employers with new Advanced Practice trainees to complete and return a governance maturity matrix.
• A future worth advancing – in conversation with the faculty leads: The Advanced practice regional faculty leads answered questions posed by delegates and discussed some of the plans and challenges for the future. 
• National conference poster competition: Congratulations to Emily Davies, Mandy Waldon and Philippa Nash from Wiltshire Health and Care, who won second place in the poster competition with their Advancing Practice to support our 'Wiltshire NHS@Home Service poster.'

Day in the Life of an Advanced Practitioner

On social media, we met Jemma Baker, an advanced practitioner working in same day emergency care (SDEC) at Gloucestershire Hospitals. A series of clips telling us all about her day can be found on Instagram

Emerging Areas Workforce Transformation Resource

During the week, we launched two new videos to introduce our Advancing Practice in Emerging Areas Workforce Transformation Resource and to support individuals with a guide to our resource.

This resource is designed to be implemented locally by Integrated Care Systems or organisations and aims to support and standardise the approach to workforce transformation for advanced practice in emerging areas. You can learn more about how to use the resource, as well as view and download the supporting materials here. 

New South West Advancing Practice Podcast

In this episode of the NHS England South West Advancing Practice podcast series, we explore the role of Advanced Practice within Radiography. We discuss the importance of supervision and governance and how non-clinical pillars of advanced practice are essential within an advanced practitioner’s job plan. Join host Martin Nelson, our Development Lead, with Richard Evans, Advanced Practitioner, and James Reed, Reporting Radiographer and Co-Chair of the Advanced Practice Steering Group at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.