Associate Psychological Practitioners (APPs) in primary care: modelling the impact.

Background: The 'Associate Psychological Practitioner' (APP) is an innovative new role that expands the psychological workforce and addresses the rising demand for mental health services in England, yet the impact of this role on NHS workforce capacity has yet to be modelled.

Aim: We modelled the impact of the APP role in Primary Care in terms of additional capacity to provide mental health care and the impact on General Practitioner (GP) capacity within the sector.

Method: Workforce experts of the NHS Workforce Repository and Planning Tool (WRaPT) team used a modelling tool to determine future state scenarios of APPs working across all Primary Care Networks (PCNs) within a region and the associated change on the baseline workforce.