HSCP Clinical Leadership Representation on National Groups

Clinical Leadership Representation – Voluntary Roles

HSCP clinical leadership representation is central to the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of services. In 2017, the National Health and Social Care Professions Office established a HSCP Clinical Leadership Representation work stream. Working closely with HSCP Professional Bodies, pathways were developed to select HSCP representatives to join national groups and furthermore, supports have been developed with the aim of enabling them to fully take up their clinical leadership representative roles. At the request of HSCP Professional Bodies, the National HSCP Office then became the central point through which requests for representatives are managed.

HSCP Clinical Leadership Representation Pathways include:

  • Professional Body Pathway – whereby HSCP are nominated for HSCP or discipline-specific representative roles. Selection for HSCP roles is managed by the National HSCP Office, assessing nominations against agreed criteria. In the case of discipline-specific roles, selection is managed by the relevant Professional Body which then puts forward the nomination to the National HSCP Office.
  • Expression of Interest Pathway – whereby EOIs are sought from HSCP in services and selection, by assessing applications against agreed criteria, is managed by the National HSCP Office.

 Supports Offered by the National HSCP Office

A suite of supports have been developed by the National HSCP Office to enable HSCP to fully take up these representative roles, including:

  • Induction to the role from the National HSCP Office
  • Offer to enrol for the Effective Representation Training Programme delivered by the National HSCP Office
  • Provision of Effective Representation Toolkit, developed by the National HSCP Office
  • Set up of coaching support as needed
  • Ongoing leadership support as required e.g. assistance to establish an Advisory Group to support a representative in his/her role

Clinical Advisory / Lead Roles – Dedicated HSCP Leadership Roles

The National HSCP Office has strongly advocated for HSCP Clinical Advisor / HSCP Lead roles for priority clinical areas. Through a combination of dedicated HSCP clinical leadership roles and nominated (voluntary role) HSCP clinical leadership representative roles on some national groups, we believe a robust, layered clinical leadership representation structure can be developed to provide expert advisory input to national groups. In the past year, six HSCP clinical leadership roles have been created by the HSE, including:

  • HSCP Clinical Advisor, Older Persons
  • HSCP Clinical Advisor, Critical Care (recruitment process, 2022)
  • HSCP Lead, Respiratory National Clinical Programme
  • Podiatry Lead, National Clinical Programme Diabetes
  • Chief HSCP Information Officer (recruitment process, 2022)

HSCP Clinical Leadership Representation on National Groups

At present, HSCP is represented on the following National Clinical Programmes:

  • Critical Care
  • Diabetes
  • Older Persons
  • Respiratory
  • Acute Medicine
  • National Deteriorating Patient
  • Disability
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Eating Disorder
  • Palliative Care
  • Sepsis
  • Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
  • Children - including Paediatrics & Neonatology (paediatric diabetes representation)
  • Gastro & Hepatology
  • Rheumatology
  • Mental Health
  • Rehabilitation Medicine
  • Obesity
  • Pathology

In addition, through the National HSCP Office and HSCP representatives, HSCP is represented on very broad range of national groups such as:

  1. Affinity
  2. Early Warning Score, Guideline Development Group
  3. Talk Therapies
  4. Criteria Led Discharge
  5. Deteriorating Patient Education Work Stream
  6. National Open Disclosure Committee
  7. National Healthcare Communications Group, Improve Subgroup
  8. Dementia Risk Reduction
  9. Lymphoedema Guideline Development Group
  10. National Oral Health Policy Group
  11. National Audit of Stroke
  12. Acute Coronary Syndrome Audit
  13. Safeguarding
  14. SNOMED
  15. Nutrition Support PPPG
  16. National PPE Working Group
  17. Paediatric Sepsis Guideline
  18. National Telehealth Steering Committee
  19. Post COVID-19 Rehabilitation
  20. Irish Hip Fracture Governance Committee
  21. Development of Care Pathways for Rare Diseases
  22. Integrated community case management system (ICCMS)
  23. Advisory Group to assist with the development of Recommendations on ICT Enablement of Older Persons' Services in Ireland (HIQA)

For information about HSCP Representatives on national groups or to enquire about becoming involved, contact hscp.nationaloffice@hse.ie.