Multi-professional collaboration

The CSP places great importance on multiprofessional collaboration in pursuing patient-focused initiatives, reflecting the way in which services operate:

• Register of therapy researchers
• Research Forum for Allied Health Professions
• Clinical Effectiveness Forum for Allied Health Professions

Register of therapy researchers

The Register was established to:

• promote multiprofessional collaboration in research
• raise the profile of R&D in the therapy professions
• facilitate involvement of therapists in R&D networks and initiatives
• provide a resource for peer review.

Research forum for Allied Health Professions

A position statement on R&D in the three therapy professions - Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy was published in 1994. The Joint Therapies Research Group (JTRG) was established in 1995 as a forum to pursue this R&D policy agenda, on behalf of the three professional bodies and in conjunction with their respective R&D committees. This Group has now evolved into the Research Forum for Allied Health Professions (RFAHP), which was established in 2000.

This incorporates the 12 professions currently regulated by the Health Professions Council (HPC). The Forum produced a discussion document on developing R&D in the AHPs in May 2001.

Clinical Effectiveness Forum for Allied Health Professions

The Clinical Effectiveness Forum for Allied Health Professions (CEFAHP) is a strategic alliance between 12 professional bodies whose 137,000 members are regulated by the Health Professions Council. It provides a single source of information about clinical effectiveness across the allied health professions and is a one-stop-shop for consultation and representation. Its purpose is to:

• take a strategic view of clinical effectiveness, as it relates to allied health professions
• share information about clinical effectiveness across the allied health professions
• be a forum where members can be identified to represent each other in wider groups and settings related to clinical effectiveness
• facilitate joint working on specific projects related to clinical effectiveness such as clinical guidelines and clinical audit communicate the work of the Forum and its position on clinical effectiveness to members of participating organisations and to other national bodies, including the Department of Health, other statutory and professional bodies and Royal Colleges.

Forum members