We understand the importance of supporting newly qualified occupational therapists as they transition to their first role and beyond. Preceptorship programmes provide support during this transition to help health and care professionals develop confidence, skills and knowledge in their new role.
We are seeking an advisory group to support our project which will complement a national programme of work that aims to promote excellence and standardisation in the quality of preceptorship programmes across the UK. With the guidance of project advisory group members, we will identify the resources required to meet the needs of early career occupational therapists. The responses to our supervision audit will also give us insight into the needs of occupational therapists in the early stages of their careers to engage in effective supervision.
Together, we will show which priority resources can be delivered within the time frame of this project and produce a longer-term plan of action to support the implementation of the HCPC preceptorship principles for occupational therapists once they are made available in 2023.
Project advisory group
We’ll need your guidance, advice and support to inform, influence and drive this work. The project will run for a six-month period (October 2022–March 2023). The advisory group will meet virtually, once per month for approximately 90 minutes, and views and opinions sought on aspects of the project through email communications outside of these meetings. We ask that you commit to approximately three to four hours per month.
Membership of the group
We want to hear from you if you:
- are an occupational therapist who transitioned from pre-registration learner to your first role as an HCPC registered OT within the past five years.
- are a pre-registration learner due to transition to your first role within the next 12 months.
- have experience of supervising early career occupational therapists.
- have lived experience of accessing an occupational therapy service.
- support the learning and development of the occupational therapy workforce (pre and post registration).
- are in a dedicated preceptorship role.
Regardless of your current level within the leadership pillar of the Career Development Framework, your contribution is important and being part of this group can contribute to your development. You will work with others from a range of backgrounds to advocate for the needs of newly qualified occupational therapists and provide leadership and support to help meet these needs.
We’ll strive to ensure that the members of this project advisory group have a diversity of experience. We’d like to recruit members from across different sectors and scopes of practice, the four UK nations and across the range of protected characteristics.
We strongly advocate for a culture which values, respects and celebrates diversity and positively supports those with lived experience. We are committed to listening and learning from our members and those who use occupational therapy services, especially those that have been historically marginalized, and their voices seldom heard.
We’ll ask you to complete a brief anonymous data collection form once you’ve been confirmed as a group member. This will allow us to record the diversity of experience within the group and find any gaps in the membership for carrying out further targeted recruitment.
- your geographical region
- current role
- a brief outline of how your experience could help to inform this work.
We plan to host the first meeting of this group virtually during the week beginning 17 October 2022 and send out communications in the week beginning 3 October 2022.