Transforming Roles paper 9 - allied health professions advanced practice: equality impact assessment

The Scope of the EQIA

The scope of this EQIA is to evaluate how Transforming Roles Paper 09 may affect individuals across all protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. It also considers wider socio-economic factors and intersectionality to assess whether Transforming Roles Paper 09 promotes equality, eliminates discrimination and supports inclusive opportunities for AHPs to progress into advanced practice roles, as well as the potential impact on service users.

The assessment was guided by the three needs of the Public Sector Equality Duty: eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation; advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not; and fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Approach and methods

The EQIA adopted a mixed-methods approach, combining:

• Quantitative data from national datasets for AHPs and reports on equality, diversity and inclusion in advanced practice trainees in England
• Qualitative insights gathered through stakeholder engagement

Evidence gathering and engagement

This EQIA draws on multiple sources of evidence, which was used to assess impacts on protected characteristics, identify potential barriers and inform actions to promote equitable access to advanced practice roles.

• Published research on AHP advanced practice, which demonstrates its impact of patient outcomes, service delivery and workforce development
• Health & Care Professions Council Advanced Practice Independent Research Report
• Scottish Government strategic documents including the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland and the AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review Recommendations
• National workforce data on AHPs including Intelligence on the health care workforce in Scotland and HCPC Data Hub
• Existing NES documents relating to service redesign, education and workforce planning including the NES AHP Skills Maximisation Toolkit, NES NMAHP Development Framework and NES AHP Workforce Planning.
• Inequitable barriers and opportunities for leadership and professional development, identified by early-career to mid-career allied health professionals (Mizzi and Marshall, 2024)
• Exploration of the representation of the allied health professions in senior leadership positions in the UK National Health Service (Eddison et al, 2024)
• Nursing & Midwifery Council Advanced Practice Review Equality Impact Assessment
• NHS England (2025) Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in the North West Trainee Advanced Practice Workforce
• NHS England (2024) Equality, diversity, and inclusion in advanced practice training in the East of England