Parmjit Dhanda, former Minister, ex-Labour MP for Gloucester, and author, has been appointed to the new role of Non-Executive Chair of the Allied Health Professions Federation (AHPF). He took up his post at the beginning of March 2017.
The AHPF represents 12 allied health professional (AHP) bodies* across the UK and through inter-professional working it aims to provide high quality care for patients and their carers across the whole of the health, education and social care sectors.
In his new post, Parmjit will engage at a senior level with stakeholders of influence to raise the profile of some 173,000 allied health professionals, who are not doctors or nurses, but represent approximately 10 per cent of the health service workforce.
Commenting on his appointment, Parmjit says: “It’s an honour for me to be asked to take on this very exciting role. The health service is always in the news, and often for the wrong reasons. I hope in my time as Chair of the AHPF we can shine a light on the quality of work done by AHPs on early intervention. They have the potential to do so much more for patients, if they are given the chance to do so by policy makers. So let’s make the case for them.”
Parmjit was MP for Gloucester from 2001-2010. He served as a Minister under Blair and Brown. He was responsible for the ‘Care Matters’ Green Paper, Healthy Schools initiative and Sure Start policy. As Fire Minister, he radically increased targets for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic recruitment and doubled the number of women entering the service. Since 2010, he has been a trade union negotiator, a Trustee and non-executive director for not-for-profit organisations involved in health, social care, housing and regeneration.
Ben Saul, Chair of the British Association for Music Therapy – one of the organisations the AHPF represents – added: “I’m delighted Parmjit has been appointed to chair the AHPF Board. In the year ahead, I believe he will help the AHPF make the case for a largely unrecognised workforce to gain greater profile, influence and, most importantly, utilise all of its skills to make a big difference to patients."