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Practice placements: challenges and solutions
Helping to ensure an essential supply of Allied Health Professions (AHP)
Developing sustainable growth in the Allied Health Professions (AHP) workforce is vital to delivering the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan. The majority of new AHPs qualify through pre-registration education thus, ensuring growth in this route is central to achieving this aim. However, to achieve this requires work with the higher education sector, local healthcare providers and national bodies to bring about this increase, raising the number of AHPs in education and training across the system. Historically, placement capacity has been a barrier to increasing current intake levels across the country. Now the recovery of placement capacity not accessible during the COVID19 pandemic has further heightened this challenge. Nevertheless, initial discussions with the Council of Deans of Health suggests expansion could be achieved with improved co-ordination and alignment between Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and placement providers, supported by a continued focus on increasing application to AHP courses.