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Gosling S1
1The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Practice & Development, London, United Kingdom
Background: Physiotherapy education in the UK has undergone significant change since 2015, prompted by country-specific policy changes, changing needs and a changing market. Education providers have responded in different ways, with increasing numbers of pre-registration programmes and increasing diversity in programme provision.
Purpose: As the UK professional body, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) sought to strengthen its influence over education developments, recognising their significance for the profession and physiotherapy workforce supply, and the opportunity to demonstrate its professional leadership. It encouraged expansion, innovation and diversity in education, while seeking to ensure responsiveness to changing population, patient, service and workforce needs, and the maintenance of high educational and professional standards.
Methods: The CSP progressed a structured programme of activity to provide supportive leadership. Integrated elements included influencing political and policy decision-making; enabling collegiate discussion on the implications, opportunities and imperatives of system, service and sector changes (in both healthcare and higher education); asserting the CSP's position on new features of education design and new types of award in pre-registration education; providing bespoke advice to new and established education providers; campaign activity to increase practice-based learning capacity; and enacting the CSP's quality assurance and enhancement role.
Results: UK pre-registration education developed significantly, in terms of both its growth and diversity. The number of student places increased by 34.3% between 2015/16 and 2018/19, with parallel increases of 27.3% in the number of pre-registration programmes and 22.9% in the number of education providers. Entry routes into the profession also diversified, from BSc(Hons) to doctorate level, and four-year integrated Master's degrees introduced. CSP accreditation continued to be sought for all provision, with the value of CSP leadership and advice strongly reflected in external stakeholder engagement and feedback.
Conclusion(s): Developments in UK physiotherapy education demonstrate the potential to achieve significant growth in physiotherapy workforce supply over a short period, informed by patient, service and workforce needs. They have also demonstrated the value of a professional body providing supportive leadership in ways that encourage creativity and innovation in educational design and delivery, while safeguarding quality and sustainability.
Implications: The value and impact of ongoing expansion and diversity in UK physiotherapy education is being kept under review, taking account of country-specific issues and trends. Further expansion is projected in 2019/20 and beyond, while further diversity should be achieved as the physiotherapist degree apprenticeship comes on stream in 2019. Particular attention is being paid to how developments underpin and sustain physiotherapy workforce supply and demand. This includes in making the case for physiotherapy as a key workforce solution in primary care, including in a context of shortages in other professions, and ensuring physiotherapy education continues to evolve to meet changing patient, service, workforce and professional needs.
Keywords: Workforce expansion, Educational diversity, Education quality
Funding acknowledgements: The work was undertaken using the corporate budget of the CSP and in line with the CSP´s corporate strategy.
Purpose: As the UK professional body, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) sought to strengthen its influence over education developments, recognising their significance for the profession and physiotherapy workforce supply, and the opportunity to demonstrate its professional leadership. It encouraged expansion, innovation and diversity in education, while seeking to ensure responsiveness to changing population, patient, service and workforce needs, and the maintenance of high educational and professional standards.
Methods: The CSP progressed a structured programme of activity to provide supportive leadership. Integrated elements included influencing political and policy decision-making; enabling collegiate discussion on the implications, opportunities and imperatives of system, service and sector changes (in both healthcare and higher education); asserting the CSP's position on new features of education design and new types of award in pre-registration education; providing bespoke advice to new and established education providers; campaign activity to increase practice-based learning capacity; and enacting the CSP's quality assurance and enhancement role.
Results: UK pre-registration education developed significantly, in terms of both its growth and diversity. The number of student places increased by 34.3% between 2015/16 and 2018/19, with parallel increases of 27.3% in the number of pre-registration programmes and 22.9% in the number of education providers. Entry routes into the profession also diversified, from BSc(Hons) to doctorate level, and four-year integrated Master's degrees introduced. CSP accreditation continued to be sought for all provision, with the value of CSP leadership and advice strongly reflected in external stakeholder engagement and feedback.
Conclusion(s): Developments in UK physiotherapy education demonstrate the potential to achieve significant growth in physiotherapy workforce supply over a short period, informed by patient, service and workforce needs. They have also demonstrated the value of a professional body providing supportive leadership in ways that encourage creativity and innovation in educational design and delivery, while safeguarding quality and sustainability.
Implications: The value and impact of ongoing expansion and diversity in UK physiotherapy education is being kept under review, taking account of country-specific issues and trends. Further expansion is projected in 2019/20 and beyond, while further diversity should be achieved as the physiotherapist degree apprenticeship comes on stream in 2019. Particular attention is being paid to how developments underpin and sustain physiotherapy workforce supply and demand. This includes in making the case for physiotherapy as a key workforce solution in primary care, including in a context of shortages in other professions, and ensuring physiotherapy education continues to evolve to meet changing patient, service, workforce and professional needs.
Keywords: Workforce expansion, Educational diversity, Education quality
Funding acknowledgements: The work was undertaken using the corporate budget of the CSP and in line with the CSP´s corporate strategy.
Topic: Education; Professional issues
Ethics approval required: No
Institution: N/A
Ethics committee: N/A
Reason not required: The work outlined in the abstract comprised activity to progress developments in education and influencing activity. The abstract provides a narrative review of the activity and the learning that can be drawn from this.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
