Developing your AHP career

Career choices - scope, range, sectors and specialising

Through your experiences on placement and study, you'll have been introduced to a range of specialisms, from musculoskeletal to dermatology, vascular, and diabetes! It is also important to highlight general practice itself as a speciality.

You will also have to decide in which setting you wish to start your career. For example:

• Public sector
• Independent sector healthcare provider
• Private sector
• Third sector.

Placements are a fantastic opportunity to work with a range of patients and professionals in various settings to develop broad experience.

Find out more about placements in the related HEE project on Placement recovery and expansion

Health Education England resources

Health Education England (HEE) has created an online resource to raise awareness of the vast array of opportunities open to Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) to develop their careers.

Watch the HEE video below, Allied Health Professionals - A Universe of Opportunities for your AHP career, to find out more.

Continuing Professional Development

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a compulsory requirement of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration and also of College membership. All registrants must ensure that ongoing CPD is maintained. 

Find out more about CPD

Advanced clinical and consultant practice roles and First contact practitioner services

HEE has developed an extension of the skills of the allied AHPs workforce to meet the needs of the population. This means extending skills that are in the remit of podiatry or broadening skills set across professional boundaries. Find out more about advancing practice here.

See also:

• HEE's First contact practitioner and advanced practitioners in primary care (podiatry): Roadmap to practice
• RCPod's policy position on Podiatrists as first contact practitioners

The introduction of Musculoskeletal FCPs is a key element of NHS England’s approach to improving patient care and easing the pressure on GP surgeries. MSK conditions account for 20% of a GP's caseload. FCP services place advanced musculoskeletal practitioners in primary care teams and at the start of the patient’s pathway, enabling them to assess, diagnose and manage MSK patients. They can provide timely care to patients and increase GP capacity overall.

The Musculoskeletal First Contact Practitioners Services - Implementation Guide has been developed as a 'how-to' for introducing these new roles in your area, covering capability frameworks, governance issues and practical advice that draws on case studies in areas already offering the service

Further resources

See NHS England's page on Musculoskeletal health.

See also NHS England's Elective care high impact interventions: First contact practitioner for MSK services