What is an ACP?
Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs) are healthcare professionals from a range of backgrounds including, but not limited to, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and occupational therapists. They are educated to Master’s level and have developed skills and knowledge to allow them to take on expanded roles. ACP is a defined level of practice designed to transform and modernise pathways of care, enabling the sharing of skills across traditional professional boundaries. ACPs are deployed across all healthcare settings and work at a level that pulls together the four pillars of Advanced Practice: Clinical Practice, Leadership & Management, Education and Research
Consider in your practice how training your own ACP could:
- Improve access to care delivery.
- Offer a sustainable solution to some of your succession planning.
- Consider what outcomes you would like to achieve for your practice. For more information or support, email [email protected].
Benefits to your practice could include:
- Embed a culture of learning and development
- Improve retention and resilience
- Enhance the skill mix within the practice
- Enhance the multi-professional team and help to provide safe, accessible and high-quality care for patients
- Form part of a sustainable business model
Consider in your practice how training your own ACP could:
Funding applications for MSc programmes in Advanced Clinical Practice are now being accepted by the Regional Faculty. For employers who may be considering adding / developing advanced practitioners in their workforce, you can access the links here.
Some key things to note to help with the success of any application:
- It is the employer who has to make the application for funding, not an individual candidate
- Business cases for trainee ACPs/ACPs are being scrutinised now as part of the application process
- This funding is not for individual cpd – it is to help develop workforce capability & meet patient need/demand
- Be clear as to what an ACP role can bring to the workforce, distinct from existing clinical roles currently employed
- There are a lot of supervisory requirements which the employer must commit to – happy to have that discussion to raise awareness
Please note only universities from the approved list can be considered. For further support and guidance, please email: [email protected]
Here are the essential links to help you answer those questions:
- Keep up to date with ACP Faculty Website: Regional Faculty for Advancing Practice – North West – Advanced Practice (hee.nhs.uk)
- Essential to work through prior to completing Expression of Interest form: Organisation ACP readiness checklist
- HEE Multi-Professional Framework for Advancing Practice
Supported ePortfolio Route
The Centre for Advancing Practice Supported ePortfolio Route is designed to enable Practitioners to evidence that they meet the advance practitioner requirements described in the Multi-professional framework for advanced clinical practice in England (MPF).
Currently, individual’s would normally evidence this by successfully completing a Centre accredited Advanced Practice Programme. The Supported ePortfolio Route will provide an alternative route, by mapping knowledge and skills to the MPF using the Centre’s ePortfolio.