Modernising allied health professions careers: attacking the foundations of the professions?

Recent UK Government reform of the National Health Service (NHS) has specifically targeted allied health professionals. As key members of the NHS work force, they have the capacity to modernize health service delivery. One way of enabling these professionals to fulfil the modernization agenda is through the development of their knowledge and skills. A recent document produced by the sector skills council for health care, "Skills for Health", proposes a competency-based career framework for allied health professionals detailing the knowledge and skills they will need to develop for their future roles in the NHS. This paper briefly outlines the broader context in which professions in the UK have experienced the process of state-led reform over recent years. In particular, it identifies the motivation for the development of a skills-based workforce for the NHS and develops a critique of the economic and ideological rationales for the emergence of a competency-based career framework. Particular attention is paid to how such planned changes may affect professionalism and the professional roles for those working in the professions allied to medicine.