ABSTRACT
Management arrangements for the AHPs often lack consistency and clarity as they do not comfortably ‘fit’ organisational structures within trusts. In this chapter, the authors present their Assessment Tool for use in evaluating AHP management and organisational structures in the context of quality, effective, efficient and economical service provision. They believe that the proposed Tool is unique in that it can be used to evaluate a wide range of management functions of AHP services. The Tool assesses AHP management structures under 10 management Domains that were identified from our research. The 10 Domains are: strategic management, clinical governance, human resource management, clinical/professional requirements, operational/service management, resource management, information management8.education, commissioning and service improvement/redesign. There is no simple ‘right’ or ‘one way’ of configuring AHP services; however, it is intended that the Assessment Tool will be helpful to those AHP managers and others to evaluate their current services or proposed restructuring and changes.
