ILPC 2027

Relations, tensions and boundaries between the professions have formed an important part of sociological discussion for decades (e.g. Hughes, 1963). ‘Non-professionally affiliated’ workers however, such as those working in support or assistant roles, have received far less attention. In recent years NPA roles have become a vital part of workforce redevelopment strategies, providing a way to ensure the best use of the skills of professionally qualified staff, address staff shortages and aid the ‘drive for better value’ (DoH, 2007).

Despite their growing presence and importance, particularly in health and public services, the NPA workforce is a vastly under-researched group. Traditional sociological theory discusses NPA roles as a tool used by the professions to offload ‘dangerously routine’ work (Abbott, 1988), depicting the relationship between professional and non-professional groups as one of conflict and misunderstanding. However, the research supporting this view has often been limited to hospital and clinical settings and to the discussion of one role in one specific context, which has prevented any detailed consideration of organisational and workplace factors. In recent years researchers have begun to suggest a more complex, potentially more positive working relationship; one which is heavily influenced by variation across organisation, workplace and sub-sector (e.g. Bach et al., 2008; Kessler et al., 2006).

This paper builds upon recent developments in the area by applying current theory to a more novel context, that of community mental health services, where the employment structure for NPA workers does not follow the traditional assistant-professional hierarchy. Based on findings from a qualitative PhD study involving 32 semi-structured interviews with workers, manager interviews and documentary analysis, it explores the experiences and working relations of workers in five newly implemented NPA roles set in the context of a changing mental health workforce.

The NPA-professional relationship tends to be portrayed as central to the experiences of NPA workers, however this community context illustrates a more complex situation where the level of professional contact is limited. This paper introduces other key relationships and the interactions between them, including contact with other NPA workers and the working relationship with the service user. The nature and variation of these relationships will be discussed, as well as exploring how they interact with other aspects such as personal characteristics and workplace factors (including team set-up, organisational regulations and geographical location) to impact on worker experience.