Cheshire and Merseyside Allied Health Professional (AHP) Faculty
About the service
The Cheshire and Merseyside Allied Health Professional Faculty is the ‘engine room’ of the Cheshire and Merseyside AHP Council, working as part of Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System (ICS).
The Council is made up of the Allied Health Professional (AHP) leads who identify workforce priorities for AHPs in Cheshire and Merseyside.
The Faculty is made up of AHPs from different organisations and professions who lead on projects designed to address these priorities. Organisations include:
- National Health Service (NHS) and other health care organisations
- Local Authorities and other social care organisations
- Higher Education Institutes (Universities)
- Primary care
- Voluntary sector
- Private organisations
Instead of everyone working separately, the Faculty brings everyone together under one umbrella.
The Faculty can provide advice to those working on individual projects within organisations, however, its primary focus is to co-create and manage projects working across multiple organisations.
If you have any suggestions of projects the Faculty could assist with please contact us on CMAHPFaculty@sthk.nhs.uk.
Watch here to find out more about the role of AHP Faculties
AHP Faculty Information
- Contact
For all enquiries, please email CMAHPFaculty@sthk.nhs.uk
- Newsletters
- Our X Feed
You can follow us on X here - @C_M_AHP_Faculty
- Our YouTube Channel
Please visit our YouTube channel for the latest news and information from our team.
- Governance
The AHP Faculty is hosted by Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
The AHP Faculty is also aligned with the Cheshire and Merseyside Chief AHP Group (made up of all Chief and Lead AHPs) who provide the direction for the key priorities.
- Faculty Resources
C&M AHP Faculty Catalogue - This catalogue is a list of resources developed within Cheshire and Merseyside.
- Occupational Therapy Podcast
The Occupational Therapy (OT) podcasts are authentic conversations with OT students and qualified OTs from across the North West of their first experience from higher education training programs and qualified practice.
The C&M AHP Faculty received funding from NHS England Reducing Pre-registration Attrition and Improving Retention (RePAIR) project to develop resources to help support OT students through their university training programmes.
A Task and Finish group comprising of OT students, qualified OTs and OT lecturers decided podcasts were an ideal way to share with OT students real events and experiences e.g. first experience of an initial assessment, to help them to be better prepared for their OT studies.
The podcasts have been produced in conjunction with the C&M Practice Learning Collaborative and the University of Chester. “Your First of Everything” podcast series is hosted by Rose James and can be accessed through platforms such as Spotify, Apple and Amazon.
Transcriptions
AHP Faculty FAQs
- Why is it called the Faculty?
The word 'faculty' traditionally refers to the staff members within an academic institution, but in this context, it refers to the collaboration between different organisations within the Integrated Care System (ICS).
The AHP Faculty team supports the C&M AHP Workforce Lead through actioning AHP workforce initiatives, utilising project management methodology to plan and deliver work.
The AHP Faculty team assist with establishing and supporting work streams to address key activities with the aim of work becoming self-sustaining across the Integrated Care System through workstream Senior Responsible Officer(s), Chairs and members from organisations leading on the work.
- Can anyone get involved with the Faculty?
Yes. Anyone can get involved.
Please get in touch if you are (CMAHPFaculty@sthk.nhs.uk):
- passionate about AHP development
- interested in collaboration and will believe that together we can resolve issues
- self motivated
- willing to think ‘outside the box’
Staff from all levels/grades are encouraged to join, especially those interested in developing their:
- Leadership skills
- Project management skills
- Quality improvement methodology skills
The work of the Faculty is carried out using a quality improvement and project management approach.
- What are AHP workforce priorities?
The NHS Long Term Plan outlines multiple goals for clinical and AHP services.
To achieve these goals, we need to increase the number, and support the retention, of AHPs to meet the demand in the next 10 years.
We do this by putting plans in place for the following priorities:
- Improving career promotion and increasing work experience for those considering career options to attract more people to consider AHP as a viable career option
- Promoting an increasingly diverse and inclusive workforce
- Expanding clinical placements – As universities are offering more places to students, there is increased demand for clinical placements. Support and assistance to achieve this is required.
- Increasing apprenticeship routes into AHP registration through promoting these routes and supporting the AHP support workforce to access these opportunities
- Understanding the reasons students leave their training courses early and working on solutions to assist
- Developing existing registered and support staff to encourage retention and to assist people to feel valued and satisfied with career growth options
- Promoting Advance Practice roles for AHPs – diversifying the AHP role into the Advanced Practitioner realm
- Supporting those who are returning to practice by promoting a smooth journey for those wanting to return after a break in their career
In conjunction with AHPs across Cheshire and Merseyside, the Faculty will design, promote and run projects to address these issues.
- Which organisations are involved?
The Cheshire and Merseyside AHP Faculty is made up of:
16 NHS organisations
- Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
- Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust
- Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- East Cheshire NHS Trust
- Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS Foundation Trust
- Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust
- Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust
- Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust
- Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
9 Social care organisations
- Cheshire East Council
- Cheshire West and Chester Council
- Halton Borough Council
- Knowsley Borough Council
- Liverpool City Council
- Sefton Council
- St Helens Council
- Warrington Borough Council
- Wirral Council
6 Higher Education Institutes
- University of Liverpool
- University of Salford
- University of Chester
- Edge Hill University
- Manchester Metropolitan University
- Liverpool John Moores University
Private, independent and voluntary parties that support AHPs in the C&M area Primary Care Networks
- What is the structure of the Faculty?
The Faculty will carry out its operations via the Faculty Steering group, which consists of:
- a Chair
- an AHP Workforce Lead
- Project Managers
- representatives from the organisations in the Faculty
- Workstream Leads
