Enhanced Practice Conference for AHPs 2026

Join the first national Enhanced Practice Conference for Allied Health Professionals, celebrating innovation, leadership, and transformation across health and social care.

The Enhanced Practice Conference for AHPs 2026 brings together AHPs, educators, service leads, and workforce leaders to celebrate the achievements of the first profession-specific Enhanced Practice apprenticeship cohorts and to explore what comes next.

Through keynotes, workshops, and poster presentations, the day will showcase how Enhanced Practice is driving real change: moving care closer to communities, embracing digital innovation, and shifting the focus from treatment to prevention. The NHS Three Shifts are not just a policy framework, they are already being lived out by AHPs working at an enhanced level across the country.

Whether you are an apprentice, a mentor, a manager, or simply curious about what Enhanced Practice means for your profession and your service, this is the day for you.

Good to know

Suitable for all AHP professions and those supporting AHP workforce development

Relevant whether you're new to Enhanced Practice or already working at this level

No prior knowledge required — just a curiosity about where AHP practice is heading

A free, ticketed event — spaces are limited, so register early

Info: his session shares a real‑world perspective from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, reflecting on a career that has evolved from advanced clinical orthotic practice into a dedicated quality improvement leadership role. Using practical examples from AHP‑led improvement projects, the session will explore how enhanced practice capabilities - such as improvement methodology, digital innovation, coaching and co‑production - can be applied to deliver measurable impact at service and system level.

Info: This session will reflect on the journey from early development and local innovation to growing national consistency, credibility, and impact. It will draw on insights of practice and examples so far across all four pillars of practice and highlight the contribution of Enhanced level practice in improving patient access, supporting service transformation, and strengthening workforce flexibility. It will acknowledge the leadership, collaboration, and commitment of those who have shaped and implemented this level of practice to date.

Info: The session will examine how these inequities are shaped by structural barriers across education, recruitment, and leadership pathways, particularly within AHP careers where progression routes can be less defined. It will then position Enhanced Clinical Practice (ECP) as a practical and scalable intervention to address these gaps—by creating transparent, standardised, and competency-based pathways for advancement aligned to national workforce strategies.

Info: This session will surface some of these frustrations, unpick some challenges around digital in recent healthcare policy and practice (including AI!), understand the role of AHPs to meet these challenges, and explore how even foundation-level digital skills and knowledge in can make a difference to enhanced AHP practice. Having these skills, an expertise to use them effectively and appropriately, and an energy to make a change empowered by digital, can enable AHPs to deliver high quality, safe, appropriate, effective, and inclusive services to those that need it the most.

Info: The session will comprise two brief presentations followed by a facilitated workshop involving researchers from a range of Allied Health Professional (AHP) backgrounds. Contributors will span a breadth of experience, from pre‑doctoral researchers to those at professorial level.

Delegates are encouraged to attend with a previous piece of work they wish to explore further as a potential research study. The faculty will support this development through structured, group‑based coaching.

Info: During the session, we’ll discuss the steps that you need to follow to enrol yourself or a colleague onto the Enhanced Clinical Practitioner apprenticeship programme. This will include the need to follow your employer’s internal Expression of Interest process to ensure that apprenticeship funding has been approved; an overview of the University of Salford’s recruitment process, including interview, application and programme onboarding, and the next step before the programme starts. We’ll also touch on the impact of Recognised Prior Learning in the application process.

Info: his presentation will outline the design, develpment, and implementation of the escape room. Reflections on learner feedback and observed benefits—such as increased engagement, teamwork, and confidence—will also be discussed.

In addition to the presentation, attendees will have the opportunity to take part in a short tabletop activity, offering a hands-on taster of the escape room concept. This interactive element will demonstrate how gamified learning can be adapted for use in a variety of educational settings, regardless of time or resource constraints.

Info: This keynote session explores how enhanced practice AHPs can lead practical action on population health and inequality by applying a system lens more deliberately across practice. Aligned with national guidance on promoting work as a health outcome, the session positions work and participation as core components of health rather than optional or specialist considerations. The session emphasises that population health is not a separate agenda, but an extension of what AHPs already do well, applied earlier and with greater system impact. It aims to leave attendees with confidence in the role of enhanced practice AHPs as inequality reducers and leaders of action across the Three Shifts.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

University of Salford, 43 Crescent, Salford, United Kingdom

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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