Return to practice for allied health professionals with protected characteristics: a mixed-methods study

Introduction: Return to Practice is one mechanism for recruiting and retaining Allied Health Professionals within the health and care workforce in England. Bringing back trained professionals, who may have left the workforce due to different circumstances with a programme of support to register with the professional regulator is in place, but it is not known how this affects persons with protected characteristics. Aim: To understand experiences of Allied Health Professionals with protected characteristics of returning to the workforce through a Return to Practice Programme. Method: A QUAL (semi structured interviews) + qual (focus-group interviews) mixed methods study. 12 online semi structured interviews with Return to Practice AHPs who had a protected characteristic, followed by 2 online focus groups with Return to Practice AHPs and workforce leads to further explore themes from interviews. Results: Our research identifies a new type of returner who are having to use Return to Practice programme as a vehicle to step into health and social care as they have not been able to find employment. A main driver to return to practice was financial reasons and not a sense of moral obligation to contribute to the health and care workforce needs. Conclusion: There is a need for organisational cultural changes to support return to practice for AHPs with protected characteristics. There needs to be a greater focus by AHP leaders on flexible working to retain workers. To date there is little evidence of leaders understanding the complexities of AHPs in a return to practice programme, the considerable contribution they can make to the workplace and the current inequities that exist.