RCOT ’ s recommendations for political and health and care leaders include :
• Expand the occupational therapy workforce to ensure staff are available to fill current and future vacancies .
• Invest in the occupational therapy workforce and multi-disciplinary teams to ensure workers are properly supported in their roles .
• Recognise that investment in the NHS and social care is critical to a healthy population and therefore economic growth .
We are already delivering a range of projects to address the workforce challenges you ’ ve told us about , including developing an occupational therapy workforce strategy , calling on policy makers to increase investment for training and funding , and developing a range of resources to address specific challenges .
Lauren Walker , RCOT Professional Adviser , explained : ‘ We ’ re developing an occupational therapy workforce strategy to influence the planning and delivery of occupational therapy services nationally and locally . The strategy will draw on the findings of the workforce survey and we ’ ll be asking members to help us shape the content later this year .
‘ We ’ re also presenting our survey report to ministers , health leaders and policy makers in all UK nations , to call for increased investment in the training of occupational therapists and the funding of occupational therapy services .
‘ We ’ re working with UNISON to review and develop the ways that we support and advise BAOT members facing workplace challenges and we ’ ve collaborated with Health Education England to develop resources to address specific workforce challenges , including inclusive engagement , recruitment and retention , career development and leadership opportunities .’
The results build upon the findings of our previous surveys exploring the experiences of OT practitioners in rehabilitation settings and children ’ s services .
The full report is available at rcot . co . uk / workforce23 . Full details of the RCOT / HEE projects can be found at www . rcot . co . uk / rcot-and-hee-projects and on pages
58-59 of this issue . Contact lauren . walker @ rcot . co . uk or benjamin . powick @ rcot . co . uk .
Sources of support for RCOT members
If you ’ re experiencing workplace challenges , there ’ s a range of support out there , including :
• RCOT ’ s Professional Practice Enquiries Service : https :// bit . ly / 3LwDNru ( all members ).
• UNISON support : https :// bit . ly / 40H4v55 ( BAOT / UNISON members ).
79 %
said that people were presenting more complex needs due to delayed interventions
93 %
described occupational therapy as a rewarding career
Our key findings
• 86 % reported an increased demand for OT services within the previous 12 months .
• 79 % stated that people were presenting more complex needs due to delayed interventions .
• 78 % said that their team wasn ’ t large enough to meet the demand .
• 63 % felt they were too busy to provide the level of care they ’ d like .
• 59 % rated their work-related stress as 7 or above on a scale of 1 to 10 , with 10 being the highest level of stress .
14 OTnews May 2023