What would change if allied health assistants and support workers were recognised for the work they actually do? That question guided AHANA’s second Allied Health Assistants Without Borders discussion, which brought together participants from Australia and the UK with Professor Richard Griffin MBE of King’s College London.
The conversation built on our first meeting in July. This time, we asked people to describe their roles, what being valued would look like in practice, and what we might learn by connecting workers across countries. Watch the recording here:
Many titles and an unclear identity
Our opening poll produced almost as many job titles as there were people in the session: allied health assistant, physiotherapy assistant, student AHA, support worker and several others. The variation was familiar to Richard, whose UK research has also found a striking range of titles for similar work. Titles alone cannot tell us what someone is qualified to do, what authority they hold or where their career might lead.
Richard also questioned the language of “support”. It can define workers chiefly by their relationship to registered professionals, even when their contribution to patients is direct. There was no suggestion that one new title would resolve this. The larger issue is whether workforce systems can see the roles clearly enough to recognise their skills, responsibilities and development needs.
Recognition has to be visible in the way work is organised
Richard described a gap between being valued by immediate colleagues and being valued by the wider health system. He recalled UK research in which only around one in five support workers felt valued by the NHS as a whole. Workers may be central to day-to-day care while still being left out of meetings, having concerns overlooked, struggling to get time for training or finding that formal development funding is directed primarily towards registered staff.
When we asked participants what a valued workforce would look like, their answers were concrete: fair pay and grading; access to professional development; career progression; recognition of expertise; a voice in decisions; and clearer approaches to supervision and delegation. Participants also raised opportunities to develop across the four pillars of practice, and the need for future allied health professionals to learn about assistant roles and delegation during their education.
These are connected questions. If an assistant’s contribution is not visible in workforce plans, job descriptions or education budgets, expressions of appreciation alone will have limited effect.
Different systems and familiar problems
The UK and Australia organise this workforce differently. Many NHS support workers sit within a common employment and pay framework, Agenda for Change, although Richard noted that the grades available to them can still leave little room for progression. In Australia, allied health assistants work across health, disability and aged care, with a wider mix of employers and funding arrangements. The comparison matters because each system makes different choices about who is counted, how roles are graded and who gets access to development.
Participants also raised the position of workers in social care. Richard noted that the barriers to education and fair pay can be even sharper outside the NHS. Across both countries, progress often depends on committed local leaders, so good practice can vary markedly between services.
What happens next
Richard described a current UK survey asking support workers about their roles, pay, progression, education and experience of work. We discussed the possibility of a parallel international survey that could test which issues are shared and which reflect local policy and employment arrangements. That remains an idea to develop together, with workers’ own priorities at its centre.
The session also gave us a useful agenda for future conversations. Supervision and delegation deserve a session of their own. So do career pathways, pay and the industrial arrangements that shape these roles. AHANA will continue to use this international network to bring people together, share evidence and make the workforce more visible.
If you would like to follow the conversation, subscribe to the free AHANA newsletter at ahananational.substack.com and join the AHANA community at facebook.com/groups/ahanaltd. We welcome ideas for the questions this network should take up next.