AHP Skills Maximisation Toolkit
Welcome to AHP Skills Maximisation toolkit. These resources are relevant for all AHPs and AHP support staff.
Introduction
Please note this site is under development.
The AHP Skills Maximisation toolkit aims to support you and your team on a service improvement journey.
This toolkit offers you three areas to choose from – Explorer, Participant, and Facilitator/ Lead.
The toolkit guides you, and the teams you work with, through a step-by-step journey with AHP skills maximisation.
If some words and terms in this toolkit are unfamiliar to you, then you may wish to refer to our glossary.
NES are developing further resources to support your understanding of workforce planning and transformation. These resources will link with this skills maximisation toolkit in the future.
What is AHP Skills Maximisation?
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Aim:
- Brief overview of the stages of AHP Skills Max
- How Skills Max fits with the wider work
- An orientation to Explorer, Participant and Facilitator areas
In NHS Scotland, AHP skills maximisation refers to a strategic approach aimed at enhancing the capabilities and contributions of the Allied Health Professions (AHP) workforce. This involves developing educational resources, guidance, and training programs to ensure AHP staff can fully use their skills and expertise in patient care. The goal is to improve workforce planning and optimise the delivery of healthcare services.
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Aim:
1. A brief overview of a real story from AHPs who have used the toolkit.
How does this fit into the wider work of workforce planning and transformation?
The diagram below illustrates that the workforce planning and transformation cycle involves many components. AHP Skills Maximisation is one component within wider work.
These workforce planning and transformation components include:
- Expected supply: Incoming workforce
- Student education: Workforce support related to students
- Demand and Activity: Workforce activities and population drivers
- Workforce: Workforce composition
- Education: Existing education and future required for AHPs (and others)
The wider programme of work is in development, future resources will link with this skills maximisation toolkit and with all components in this cycle.
What is the skills maximisation toolkit?
The NES AHP Skills Maximisation Toolkit was first published and well-received in 2007. The toolkit is a series of resources to support maximising the contribution made by AHP services to patient journeys. The original printed AHP Skills Maximisation resources have been reviewed and updated in 2025 to provide resources which are easier to navigate, digest and in a user-friendly web-accessible format.
Suggestions for how to use these resources…
- First, choose which guiding area below is useful for you – explorer, participant or facilitator/lead.
- If this is your first time using this toolkit choose the ‘Explorer’ area.
- As you work through the steps you can make your own notes of any questions you have.
- Reflect on your questions and you decide your next steps and actions e.g.
- Note who you may need to speak with
- Note what needs to be arranged before your team use the ‘Participant’ area.
- Plan Skills Maximisation workshops - leads can use the ‘Facilitator/ Lead’ area to access further supporting resources, questions, suggestions, and templates.
- You are encouraged to make space and time for your individual thinking, and then you will need to develop your thinking with your team and their thinking. The toolkit gives you prompts for planning and recording your Skills Maximisation activities. The toolkit also gives links to wider references and workstreams.
Feedback
We hope you enjoy exploring the site and have found it useful. We welcome your feedback to inform ongoing development of the site.
If you have any comments, ideas or suggestions, please complete the short feedback form or email us directly at postreg.nmahp@nes.scot.nhs.uk