Written question WQ90065

Through our national programmes, we are committed to ensuring the delivery of transformed modern, multi-professional services that deliver the highest quality of care, and the best outcomes for our population by ensuring services deliver treatment by the right person in the right place at the right time. That includes supporting our workforce to expand and develop their roles and work at the top of their licence.

Recognising and more effectively using the skills of pharmacy technicians will enable pharmacists to spend a greater proportion of their time delivering patient-facing clinical services – using their training and expertise, including prescribing, to improve healthcare outcomes for patients and local communities.

This will improve career progression for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and ensure they are using their training and skills to contribute to the best of their professional ability as part of the NHS team.

The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Framework supports the expansion of a vibrant AHP workforce, which includes the development of career pathways including specialist and consultant clinical roles, greater leadership opportunities, development of research posts and wider engagement in research.

The Welsh Government continues to fund Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) £323k in 2023-24 to deliver a national programme for the AHP Framework. This will transform access to the expert skills of allied health professionals (AHPs), allowing them to develop and expand their roles to incorporate new ways of working, provide more preventative and public health interventions and lead the development of community rehabilitation services.

We have also provided £5m recurrent funding from April 2023 to increase the capacity of community based AHPs.

HEIW has recently published the Enhanced, Advanced and Consultant Framework to support AHPs to expand and develop their skills. We are providing a wide range of leadership and clinical skills training opportunities to help the workforce expand their roles.

We recognise the value that Specialist Nurses bring to service delivery and enhanced patient care for example Cancer Specialist Nurses and are supportive of the continued and enhanced use of Specialist Nurses where appropriate.