Allied Health Professions Workforce Research Partnership: supporting a sustainable and effective Allied Health Professions workforce in rural and coastal regions and in deprived urban areas

Background: Allied Health Professions (AHP) are a large, diverse workforce providing essential services across urgent, emergency, acute and community settings. Significant challenges to the AHP workforce, particularly in rural, coastal and deprived urban areas, are compromising patient care and restricting service innovation. Our AHP Workforce Research Partnership brings together individuals and organisations from across disciplines and sectors in three regional workforce research hubs to deliver prioritised AHP workforce research using participatory approaches. Aim and Research questions: The overall aim of our Partnership is to convene and deliver sustainable workforce improvements which will benefit patients through robust research and implementation of AHP workforce innovations and will be a catalyst for research responding to emerging policy imperatives. Research questions are: 1) What are the most significant workforce challenges related to the organisation, delivery, and development of the AHP workforce that will benefit from high quality research? 2) Which models of research design, delivery, dissemination, and evaluation are appropriate to investigate interventions within AHP workforce settings? 3) Which workforce interventions will be effective, particularly for AHP services situated in rural, coastal, and deprived urban areas? Methods and Timelines for Delivery: Our work is organised into 4 phases, each with defined objectives and work packages, but retaining flexibility for co-production and emergent priorities: Phase 1 (0-18 months): (1) Establish Partnership core capacity and capability functions (flexible network, living knowledge mobilisation and communication strategy, horizon scanning rapid reviews), (2) Delivery of a research prioritisation study (national research priority-setting exercise), (3) Delivery of three research projects (exploring AHP workforce retention mechanisms and interventions, constructing AHP workforce simulation model, service and system impacts of degree apprenticeships). Phase 2 (18-24 months): (1) Establish a prioritised programme of research, commencing with design and initiation of two large-scale implementation projects (AHP contributions to primary care, embedding AHP clinical academics), (2) New project scoping (AHP retention across the career lifespan) Phase 3 (24-36 months): (1) Continue/complete large-scale implementation studies, (2) Commence new study (AHP retention across the career lifespan) Phase 4 (36-60 months): (1) Continue/complete implementation studies, (2) Creation and mobilisation of evidence-based implementation toolkit. Organisation, Methods, Approaches, Outputs, and Impacts: Sheffield Hallam University is the coordinating institution responsible for strategic programme management, working closely with workforce leaders, stakeholder groups, and three regional research hubs (South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, East of England). Research designs are underpinned by co-production and participatory approaches and build on our expertise in multi-centre mixed methods studies, case study approaches, impact evaluations, observational research, simulation modelling and economic evaluations, survey research, consensus studies and complex evaluations. Our Partnership will produce new networks, knowledge, models, resources and toolkits to support commissioners and AHP leaders to implement a sustainable AHP workforce in rural, coastal, and deprived urban areas.