AHP Support Workers

When considering a career in healthcare, you may have thought that university study or an apprenticeship was your only option and that you may be restricted to working in registered roles such as a Nurse, Doctor, or one of our Allied Health Professional roles.

In reality, there are a whole range of roles in healthcare which provide essential support and care to patients, and their fellow colleagues.

These roles include support workers, senior support workers, assistants and assistant practitioners who work alongside the allied health professionals (AHPs). These staff members play a crucial role in delivering safe and effective care, influencing patient’s experiences, across a huge variety of services such as within the NHS including inpatient and community, social care, housing, education and voluntary services. Support staff can also work with individuals at every age, from babies and young children, adults and older age.

The AHP support workforce works with registered allied health professional staff and the wider healthcare team (also known as the multi-disciplinary team).

AHP support workers can be involved in a range of tasks, often dependent on the allied health profession(s) they are working with; this may include tasks such as welcoming and preparing service users for treatment, supporting patients with their clinical care plans, supporting the development of resources and information and running groups.

Take a look at some examples of AHP Support Staff activities in the image below.

Think you might be interested in a career as an AHP Support Staff member?

Fantastic! Being an AHP Support Staff member is a great way of getting a taste for what it is like working in healthcare – it may be the job of your dreams or lead you on a journey you may not be expecting such as an apprenticeship to become a registered allied health professional at a later point in time.

If you do not have prior experience in healthcare, you might be surprised to realise you already have the skills needed. One of the most important elements of working in healthcare is being caring and compassionate, along with good communications skills.

What matters most is that you have a passion for helping others and enjoy working as part of a committed and caring team.

Inspirational stories

You can also take a look at some of our local AHP Support Staff inspirational stories below such as Lucy, Leading support worker for AHP Workforce Supply Project; Naseem, Rehabilitation Support Worker at the Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service, Helen, Senior Therapy Assistant, Peter, Occupational Therapy Assistant and Toni, Henna and Jo, Dietetic Associate Practitioners.