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Contribution of Allied Health Professionals

Background

The term ‘Allied Health Professions’ (AHPs) refers to fourteen distinct disciplines within the health and care sector.

There are 14 registerable AHP titles, covering 15 specific roles. AHPs have a role in assessing, treating and diagnosing patients across the social care, housing, education, independent and voluntary sectors. AHPs’ roles are centred on the prevention and improvement of health and wellbeing.

Below are a list and description of these disciplines, which are taken from an NHS England webpage.

Art therapists

Art therapists use art as a medium to address emotional issues which may be confusing and distressing.

Dietitians

Dietitians translate the science of nutrition into everyday information about food and advise people on their food and nutrition choices.

Dramatherapists

Dramatherapists use role play, voice work, movement and storytelling to help people explore and solve personal and social problems.

Music therapists

Music therapists use the power of music to help people deal with feelings they cannot put into words.

Occupational therapists

Occupational therapists help people lead their best lives. They help people with mental and physical health needs and learning disabilities do things they want and need to in everyday lives.

Operating department practitioners

Operating department practitioners are highly skilled members of the surgical team providing expert care and support during operations in theatres. Flexible and adaptable, their skills are also being valued in critical and emergency care and playing a team role in organ transplant services.

Orthoptists

Orthoptists help improve the quality of people’s lives by treating eye disorders and spotting serious neurological conditions.

Osteopaths

Osteopaths are experts in the musculoskeletal system. They detect, treat and prevent health problems by moving, stretching and massaging a person’s muscles and joints.

Paramedics

Paramedics are best known for their blue light ambulance responder skills in emergency pre-hospital settings. They also work in the community, urgent, primary, and secondary care, and play an important role in public health.

Physiotherapists

Physiotherapists help people affected by injury, illness or disability and frailty through movement, exercise, manual therapy and advice. They enable people to improve their physical health and activity and play an important role in public health.

Podiatrists

Podiatrists treat and care for people whose feet and lower limbs have been affected by injury or illness.

Prosthetists and orthotists

Prosthetists

Prosthetists work autonomously to assess, prescribe, design, supply and review prosthetic limbs which enable and enhance the lives of people of all ages. They work closely with the patient and other healthcare professionals, using advanced technology to replicate the structural and functional characteristics of the absent limb.

Orthotists

Orthotists work with people of all ages, to understand their individual needs in many different settings and often collaborate with other healthcare professionals. They autonomously prescribe, design and supply orthoses (splints or braces) which support or enhance the neuro-muscular and skeletal systems and protect existing body parts.

Radiographers

Diagnostic radiographers

Diagnostic radiographers use advanced imaging equipment to look inside a person’s body to help diagnose and understand an illness or injury. They use communication and patient care skills to help achieve high quality images of the human body.

Therapeutic radiographers

Therapeutic radiographers use complex and advanced equipment to plan and deliver radiation treatment to cancer patients. They support patients throughout their radiotherapy treatment pathway.

Speech and language therapists

Speech and language therapists provide life-changing treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communications, eating, drinking and swallowing.

Regulation

All of the registerable titles (excluding osteopaths) are regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Registrants must comply with the standards set by the HCPC, relating to conduct, performance, ethics, proficiency, continuing professional development, and education and training.

Osteopaths are regulated by the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC). Similarly, registrants must comply with standards set by the GOsC.

Education and training

The NHS careers website explains that the main route to becoming an AHP is by obtaining a degree, although some AHP roles allow for training via a degree apprenticeship.

The NHS Learning Support Fund provides a £5,000 training grant per academic year, to people studying certain health and care courses, including some of the AHP roles. Additional funding is available to support childcare cost and travel and accommodation costs associated with placements.

Workforce strategies

The Allied Health Professions UK Public Health Strategic Framework for 2025-2030 (PDF) was published jointly in 2025 by the four governments and health agencies of the UK. The framework sets out the share vision for the role of AHPs. It also committed to objectives around the development of AHPs, addressing health inequalities, delivering sustainable healthcare, promoting evidence, innovation and improvement, and leading and influencing in public health.

In 2022, NHS England published The Allied Health Professions Strategy for England 2022 to 2027. It sought to “provide strategic direction to the AHP community across England” and “help the AHP community and those they work with maximise their contribution to the aim of improving health outcomes for all”. The strategy set out commitments on a wide range of areas, including anti-discriminatory and anti-racist practice, research and innovation, the harnessing of digital technologies, addressing inequalities, and promoting environmental sustainability.

In July 2025, the government published its 10 Year Plan for England: fit for the future. The plan set out ‘three shifts’, shifting care from hospital to community, from analogue to digital and from sickness to prevention. The government committed to developing advanced practice models for AHPs, aligned to the three shifts. The plan also spoke about allowing more clinical tasks, backed by artificial intelligence, to be performed by AHPs.

The previous government published an NHS Long Term Workforce Plan in 2023. It set out projections of an anticipated shortfall in the number of AHPs. With full implementation of the plan, an additional 71,000 – 76,000 AHPs would join the workforce. The current government has set out a “departure from the 2023 projections… which were modelled on the system as it was at that time”, and  committed to publishing a new workforce strategy.

In 2019, the government published the NHS Long Term Plan for England. It talked about urgent response and recovery support being delivered by flexible teams, including AHPs, working across primary care and local hospitals. It also set out expanded roles for some AHPs to support neonatal nurses.

Extending responsibilities for AHPs

The Health and Care Act 2022 enabled major reforms to the NHS in England, and notably in the establishment of integrated care systems and integrated care boards. The act enabled other professionals besides doctors, to certify fit notes, including occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

Between August and October 2025, the government held a consultation on extending medicines responsibilities for paramedics, physiotherapists, operating department practitioners and diagnostic radiographers. It would enable these professionals to administer, prescribe or supply more medicines than they are currently permitted to. The government has not yet published the outcome of the consultation.

Allied health profession workforceNHS England’s workforce statistics include details of the number AHPs working in NHS Hospital and Community Services.

The latest data is for January 2026 when there were around 117,800 full time equivalent (FTE) AHPs in England. This was an increase of around 42,650 FTE staff (+57%) compared with the January 2016 figure.

Over half the total staff numbers are made up of physiotherapists, paramedics, diagnostic radiographers and occupational therapists.

Source:  NHS Workforce Statistics - January 2026 – Trusts and core organisations data tables, Table 12

Annotated reading list

Allied Health Professions: Labour Turnover (UIN 124180, 13 Apr 2026)

Asked: NHS retention of podiatrists and other specialised healthcare professionals.

Answer mentions the 10-year health plan, and that existing data on retention of allied health professionals (AHP) is currently not available.

Allied Health Professions: Employment (UIN 120507, 23 Mar 2026)

Asked: support for AHPs into employment following training.

Answer states that recruitment is managed by individual NHS trusts at the local level.

Allied Health Professions (HL14884, 10 Mar 2026)

Asked: workforce pipeline for small and vulnerable AHPs following university course closures and reductions

Answer mentions that NHS England has a programme for small and vulnerable professions.

Chartered society of physiotherapy, New AHP parliamentary group launches with big calls for government action, 2 February 2026

Chartered society of physiotherapy, Major breakthrough on safe staffing levels for AHPs, 15 December 2025