Nursing and Allied Health Professionals Workforce

The Cancer Alliance is committed to supporting and developing sustainable cancer nursing and allied health professional workforces.

The nursing and allied health professionals workforce programme is vital in supporting and working collaboratively with cancer clinical leads across Humber and North Yorkshire to achieve the aim of being a clinically led Cancer Alliance. 

The programme provides expert and highly specialist professional and clinical knowledge and advice in the delivery of the nursing and allied health professional-related elements of the NHS Long Term Plan for Cancer.

Objectives

To enhance workforce development and clinical leadership by providing professional guidance and aligning strategies to meet future nursing and AHP needs for improved service quality and outcomes.
To drive quality improvement and patient-centred care by leading system-wide efforts to enhance cancer care, prioritise personalised patient experiences and ensure adherence to national standards across all care pathways.
To facilitate collaboration and transformation by building effective stakeholder relationships, driving cross organisational projects and aligning with regional and national initiatives to improve cancer and address inequalities.

Nursing and AHP Workforce strategy

Our workforce strategy, shaped through collaboration frontline workers, emphasises leadership, adaptability and cultural change to address challenges, such as recruitment, succession planning and professional development. It aligns with ICB and other Cancer Alliance strategies, and advocates for increased pre-registration training places.

Complementing organisational workforce plans, the strategy seeks to secure a sustainable workforce, enhancing cancer care now and in the future.

ACCEND framework

The National ACCEND framework, which includes the Career Pathway, core cancer capabilities and education framework, aims to transform career development and education within the cancer care workforce.

It provides career progression guidance and outlines essential cancer knowledge for all levels of practice. The framework helps practitioners build core skills and behaviours.

It also supports learning and development opportunities, enabling employers to deliver high-quality services and promote workforce wellbeing.

Watch the ACCEND framework presentation video here.

Nursing, AHP and Quality Agenda

A key responsibility of Cancer Alliances is to ensure that quality services are delivered to our patients. The Cancer Alliance is working towards ensuring that quality is at the heart of everything we do.

By focusing on the three key dimensions of quality; clinical effectiveness, patient experience and safety, we aim to provide equitable and excellent care to patients across our geographically diverse region.

Through collaboration with our partners, we aim to ensure high-quality cancer pathways are in place, which will lead to improved outcomes, better experiences and safer care for patients across our region.

Research and innovation initiatives

We are exploring the ways we can highlight the opportunities for nurses and AHPs to engage in research projects, with our Cancer Diagnostics and Innovation team. This includes building a research collaborative to amplify nursing and AHP voices, as well as collaboration with academic institutions and participation in clinical trials.

We are working to showcase ongoing projects that aim to improve patient care through innovative practices and technologies, with several of this year’s innovation grants led by or involving nursing colleagues.

More information

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan builds on the NHS People Plan and NHS People Promise.

Click here to read about the different health and social care careers that people can pursue within our region.

Click here and here to read the ways in which allied health professionals support cancer patients through their healthcare pathways.