Supporting early career occupational therapists

Our initial actions in response to these inter-related ‘essentials’ contribute to a working environment, culture, and professional landscape which supports growth of professional identity.

Support available to OTs during that transition to practice and early career as a HCPC registered professional is variable dependent on region, sector, setting and a whole range of individual contexts and circumstances. Early career preceptorship, defined as a programme of structured support during the transition to help health and care professionals, can help OTs to develop confidence, skills and knowledge in their new role. Preceptorship experiences are similarly widely variable in accessibility, availability and applicability across the breadth and depth of OT across the four nations. 

A national programme of work to promote excellence and standardisation in the quality of preceptorship programmes for health and care professionals across the UK has been parallel to this project. We have represented our profession as part of this programme of work. Insights from our project advisory group helped inform our response to the HCPC consultation on proposed guiding principles of preceptorship. Our response emphasised the importance of access to profession specific components within any preceptorship model. A theme throughout this project is acknowledgement of early career transition as a key period in developing and reinforcing professional identity. 

HCPC's five Principles of Preceptorship

The five principles are broad in structure, so that they can be easily used across all AHPs. They are there to:

• serve as a guide
• ensure programmes meet HCPC registrants’ needs
• support improvements in the quality of the services allied health professionals provide.

AHP Preceptorship Standards and Framework

The AHP Preceptorship Standards and Framework set out what AHP Preceptorship means and expands on the HCPC Principles for Preceptorship, to provide standards and a best practice implementation framework to support AHPs in England.

Understand the principles and how they affect you

To help you get to grips with how you can use the new resources – as a newly registered OT, returning to practice, in a new role, or as practitioner, employer or service manager – we hosted a webinar with HCPC and NHSE to discuss this. You can now watch the video and see what was discussed.

A parallel workstream around inclusive engagement equally highlighted similar themes regarding the most helpful resource in career development and progression as being able to see possibilities and pathways, and hear narratives of how people have overcome challenges in their career journey.

Similarly, discussions to establish priority resources across both early career and inclusive engagement workstreams have reiterated the need for creative approaches. Resources need to be accessible, applicable and consider the ongoing time pressures which already impact busy professionals. 

Using the Kawa Model of occupational therapy, and the analogy career journey as a river, as a lens for career conversations, a series of podcasts have been recorded and will be launched during April 2023, then released weekly. This will provide, in a sense, a living library of narratives of possibilities in occupational therapy in a way that is representative of the breadth, depth and diversity of occupational therapy and our workforce. The inclusion of early career occupational therapists, pre-registration learners, members of our occupational therapy support workforce and OTs in leadership roles, all together as one community within the same overarching series, highlights the value and importance of each and every member of our workforce.

In its’ own right, this series is a resource for early career OTs in terms of seeing possibilities and pathways and hearing what’s worked for others.  However, explicitly inclusive of and intentionally supportive of early career OTs, the questions ‘What do you wish you’d known as an early career OT? What would you say now to your early career self and/or prior to joining the profession?’ were asked of each conversation participant. 

The prompts used to guide the career conversations podcasts have also been repurposed into a Kawa-based reflection tool that prompts thinking around career development and progression within and beyond the four pillars of practice. The Kawa approach also highlights the individual in their career journey; that river course/career development and progression journey is something that’s consistently changing and evolving with a unique course for each individual and not necessarily linear or hierarchical. This aligns with the broader ‘Growing Your AHP Career’ (AHPCareers project and narrative. 
 

A common theme we heard across many of our projects was the value that members of our occupational therapy workforce place on networking, to be able to share and learn from others and seek support from peers with similar interests. Our Communities and Connections team are dedicated to supporting RCOT members to come together. You can join one of our specialist sections which offers networking and CPD opportunities specific to a range of areas of practice. When you join RCOT you become a member of your RCOT region based on your registered address. Each region is supported by a committee of volunteer members who are nominated annually to support local and regional events, networking groups and activities and sharing of best practice. 

One of our priorities for 2023 is to create an online space where you can connect and share experiences with others. Look out for RCOT communications to hear about further developments.

The Professional Development team is here to help you with your professional learning and development. Our web page has a range of resources to support many aspects of your continuing professional development. This includes the RCOT Career development framework and useful resources to help you think about your next career steps and/or to develop within your current role. 

• CPD @ RCOT
• Reflective tools

Supervision is defined as ‘a process of professional learning and development that enables an individual to reflect on an develop their knowledge, skills and competence through agreed and regular support with another professional’ (HCPC 2021).

This guidance below aims to help practitioners and managers establish healthy and effective supervision practices that will successfully meet the quality standards and strategy documents across the UK.

•  Supervision guidance for occupational therapists and their managers (2015). 

HCPC have identified 10 key characteristics of effective supervision. We’ve used these characteristics to design a Supervision readiness toolkit to help you evaluate your experience as a supervisee. You can use the checklist to reflect, action plan and as the basis for professional conversations to help you get the most out of your supervision.

• An interactive readiness checklist for supervisees.