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Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs)

Advanced clinical practice (ACP) is a defined level of practice designed to transform and modernise pathways of care, enabling the safe and effective sharing of skills across traditional professional boundaries.

Advanced clinical practitioners (ACPs) come from a range of professional backgrounds including nursing, pharmacy, and allied health professions. They are healthcare professionals educated to Master’s level who have developed the skills and knowledge to allow them to take on expanded roles and scope of practice caring for patients. ACPs practice with autonomy and expertise to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients across a variety of settings, including Emergency Department, Frailty, SDEC, and Orthopaedics.

ACPs are deployed across all healthcare settings and work at a level of advanced clinical practice that pulls together the four ACP pillars:

  • Clinical practice
  • Leadership and management
  • Education
  • Research

They demonstrate the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes (behaviours) to meet the requirements of the Multi-Professional Framework of Advanced Clinical Practice introduced by Health Education England in 2017.

Advanced clinical practitioners support existing clinical care to enhance the capacity and capability within multi-professional teams. Their primary roles include improving clinical continuity, providing more patient-focused care. They also help provide safe, accessible and high-quality patient care.

The ability of the NHS to respond to challenges of increased demand for its services has intensified pressures on the workforce. In addition, tighter financial constraints, growing workforce capacity, and changes to working patterns have meant new ways of working need to be devised.

The growth of the ACP role has been one of many ways to respond to these challenges in order to deliver high quality care. The Trust has supported the development of this role in order to meet some of these challenges locally.

The NHS Long-Term Plan highlights how advanced clinical practice is central to helping transform service delivery and better meet local health needs by providing enhanced capacity, productivity, and efficiency within multi-professional teams.

Developing advanced clinical practice roles, as well as the level of practice just below and above ACP level is a key component of contemporary workforce planning, as described in the NHS Long Term Plan.