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Together, let's make a bigger impact

Through our new Workforce Strategy, we'll equip you with the skills and resources to be a leader, embrace innovation and champion health equity for all.

RCOT
21 March 2024

Our first ever Workforce Strategy launches today.

You can read the strategy today by visiting rcot.co.uk/workforce-strategy

It creates a path towards our vision for an expanded occupational therapy workforce – positioned to have maximum impact in improving people’s health and quality of life by 2035.

You can hear more about our vision, and the role our Workforce Strategy will play, through the short introductory video from Karin Orman – Director or Practice and Innovation – below.

Our four workforce priorities

To achieve our vision we have four workforce priorities that inform our overall action plan.

These priorities will carry through to our nation-specific action plans being released throughout 2024.

Workforce priority one: Optimising occupational therapy

  • We will support occupational therapy practitioners to be changemakers, using their skills and knowledge to lead and co-design innovative products, interventions and services that improve people’s lives and wellbeing.
  • We will champion innovative service delivery models that improve access to occupational therapy and achieve health equity for all.

Workforce priority two: Demonstrating value and impact

  • We will build our real-world and research evidence for occupational therapy to justify investment in the occupational therapy workforce by quantifying the impact.
  • We will work with our leaders to put the case for how and where to deploy our expertise to add the most value for people and their families, the wider health and care system and to avoid critical shortages within the OT workforce.

Workforce priority three: Retention and career development

  • We will support and promote the development of all occupational therapy practitioners, especially those from historically marginalised and under-represented communities, to be where they want to be at each stage in their career.
  • We will build our profession’s capacity, confidence and capability to incorporate leadership, learning, research and innovation into practice.

Workforce priority four: Effective workforce planning

  • We will empower the OT workforce to contribute to, access and use the workforce planning data and intelligence available to them.
  • We will empower the occupational therapy workforce to use the data and intelligence to make informed decisions about their positioning within the health and care system.

Want to know more?

Attend a Workforce Strategy drop-in session:

6–7pm, Thursday 4 April 2024

12.30–1.30pm, Tuesday 9 April 2024

Visit rcot.co.uk/events/workforce-strategy-drop-session for more information and to sign up.

With this strategy our occupational therapy workforce will become a powerful movement – boldly negotiating where we should be positioned to have the maximum impact for the UK’s communities, armed with robust evidence about what occupational therapy brings to health and social care.

Odeth Richardson – BAOT/RCOT Chair of Council

Helping our profession to thrive

We're committed to supporting and promoting the development of all occupational therapists – especially those from under-represented communities – even if they’re not members.

We want you to reach your full potential at every stage of your career.

This is why our action plan is focused on developing changemakers. Supporting you in using your skills and knowledge to lead and co-design innovative solutions that directly improve people's lives and wellbeing.

We’ll also provide you with the knowledge and tools to champion equity in action. We're dedicated to promoting service delivery models that expand access to occupational therapy for all – making sure everyone receives the care they deserve.

We can’t do this alone though. Together, let's transform occupational therapy for the populations we serve.

Download a summary of the strategy

Find our accessible versions of the strategy, including a summary, at rcot.co.uk/workforce-strategy/download

You can also find our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), drop-in event sign-up and lots of details about how we built the strategy at rcot.co.uk/workforce-strategy

We hope you’re as excited as we are to make sure that occupational therapy continues to play a vital role in the UK's health and wellbeing.