Thinking Differently about Support Workers

Thinking Differently about Support Workers www.csp.org.uk/thinkingdifferently has been developed in collaboration with Health Education England to showcase the important contribution of the physiotherapy support workforce to the profession.

The impact of the support workforce on patient care and service productivity is unfortunately too often overlooked and misunderstood in workforce planning so the video aims to highlight the capability and skills of the physiotherapy support workforce. We hope the video will inspire you to consider how you deploy your support workforce; challenge any assumptions about support worker capability and consider how your support workforce might be supported to contribute more to patient care and thereby local workforce transformation. The CSP’s SW capability framework https://www.csp.org.uk/publications/optimising-capability-physiotherapy-support-workforce can also help you to do this

We have seen during the pandemic the amazing response of the profession at all levels of practice, the support workforce included and as we move forwards it is clear that the demand on therapies and rehabilitation services will continue to grow and this presents a challenge for our workforce in its current state.

By optimising the contribution of the physiotherapy support workforce, enabling them to work at the height of their capabilities and in new and different ways, their practice can support the workforce transformation needed to meet the demand and opportunities for the profession.

We hope you enjoy watching the video and ask that you share it on social media using #thinkingdifferently and with colleagues and service leads within your organisation as a means to highlight the work and value of the support workforce. We also hope it will be a useful tool to support you to influence for their growth and development in your services.