New resource will help members engage in productive job planning

This is one of the messages in a new statement published by the CSP, which outlines how physiotherapy staff can create effective job plans, which document all their duties and breakdown how much time each task should be allocated.

The new guidance includes advice about how to approach the job planning process and a series of recommendations that align with NHS Improvement’s job planning best practice guide for AHPs.

CSP professional advisor Claire Fordham told Frontline:  ‘The CSP welcomes the introduction of job planning for AHPs and urges members to understand it and engage with it in their workplaces.

‘We know that activities such as attendance at meetings, teaching and supporting other staff play an essential role in delivering good care. But far too frequently these activities are not acknowledged and recognised, which leads to unrealistic expectations about patient facing capacity, and unreasonable pressure on staff to meet the full demands of their role without enough time to attend to them.’

She added that job planning offered physiotherapy staff a vital opportunity to gain clarity about all the activities they undertake as part of their role and how much time they should spend on each.

‘It provides a more explicit picture of how staff are required to divide their time between activities, giving clarity on the true capacity for patient facing interventions,’ she explained.

‘For service leads and managers job planning supports the management of unwarranted variation between similar roles in teams, driving up productivity in a fair and transparent manner and is a useful tool for wider workforce planning.’