What made you want to produce the Digital and Data Foundations course? 

Research has identified gaps in the digital competence and confidence of UK AHPs. We know of the amazing work being delivered by AHP teams all across the UK but, without the digital and data competence and confidence, it is difficult for us to engage with stakeholders and make that case. We want all UK AHPs to have a solid grounding in digital and data skills, which can act as a foundation for the four pillars of AHP practice. Digital and data skills are an essential adjunct to the skillset of a modern AHP. This course gives them this baseline. 

When designing the course layout and content, what were the key priorities? 

For some of our learners, this may be the first time they’ve come across these digital and data concepts, and informatics isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. I love it, but not everyone does! So we needed to make the content accessible and relevant to practice. Our interactive elements do that and also help to reinforce the learning, rather than ‘click next’ learning that can be found in other CPD courses. 

What do you think is the biggest selling point of this course? 

As a conservative calculation, there are more than 300,000 AHPs working across the UK. Making one single training course work for all these individuals and the different ways they practise their profession, in different settings, at different career stages, and with different starting points of digital and data competence, was a significant challenge. Working with multiple stakeholders throughout the development and testing processes has helped us meet that challenge. Making a single education programme accessible and relevant for that many people is the biggest selling point. 

This is a physio-built course, but what input did you have from other AHPs? 

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy team may have driven the process, but this has been a collaboration from start to finish. The initial idea came from physiotherapy, but very quickly moved to AHP wide, and it has stayed there, despite that making the process more complex. Eighty seven individuals have contributed to the development, design and testing of this programme. Experts in digital, data, design, reflection, education and more have contributed, as well as members from 13 professions. Representatives from 13 AHP professional bodies, including the SoR, made up our project steering group. We’ve worked hard with that group and our multi-disciplinary testing groups to ensure that the content works for all AHPs across the UK. It may have been physio led but it was built for AHPs, by AHPs. 

Why do you think AHPs should do this course? 

We know that the UK AHP workforce has gaps in their digital and data competence and confidence. This course can address those gaps, adding digital and data skills alongside all the other tools we have to deliver high-level AHP practice, and demonstrate that to our stakeholders. It will also equip us with the skill to identify challenges in our services, identify those stakeholders that can address this and present a robust business case for the change we need to improve our services. The goal isn’t to make every AHP a digital expert, it’s to give every AHP an additional skillset to improve their practice. 

Do you have any aspirations to produce any further courses?

We’re working with partners across the UK to build an implementation toolkit for the Digital and Data Foundations (DDF) programme. This will help organisations implement the training on their patch, using identified champions to support the rest of the workforce to engage. 

We’re also working with partners on another programme to be hosted on the NHS Digital Academy (again accessible by all UK AHPs regardless of geographical location, career stage, employment or profession). This new programme is not really a sequel to the DDF programme but will develop some of the basic concepts introduced in it. It is more focused on implementing the technology changes identified by foundation-level digital and data skills.