International Exploration of Health and Care Professionals Advanced Level of Practice in Intellectual Disability and/or Autism, Applied Through a UK, Health Education England Lens: Scoping Review.

Publication date: Aug 11, 2026

To explore, identify and describe the journey for health and care professionals (HCPs) working towards developing advanced level practice in intellectual disability and autism. The review proposes there is an acknowledged gap in understanding the identity and positionality of advanced practice for people with autism and/or a learning disability. Scoping review. PRISMA-ScR guidelines were used to report the review. The published protocol was registered with the Health Science Network. Five academic databases were searched from 1994 to 2024 to capture the historical and contemporary trajectory of developments in advanced practice. Data extracted was in reference to the four pillars of Advanced Practice: Education, Leadership and Management, Clinical Practice and Research. Forty-four papers provided new insights into activities of advanced practice. Advanced practice was identified in ‘Assessing and Managing Care’; ‘Working in Partnership’; ‘Interprofessional Collaborative Working’; ‘Knowledge, Attitude and Competence’; and ‘Role Evaluation, Models and Tools’. Explored the context and development of advanced practice, the positionality in intellectual disability and autism and thirdly the impact of advanced practice for this population group. Drawing on international literature, this review identified the types of advanced practice activities, the challenges for Health Care Professionals and the impact in their provision and management of care. Highlighting also the gaps and opportunities to develop advanced practice in education, leadership, management, clinical practice and research. In the absence of international advanced practice role comparators in this review, more research and workforce development is required to standardise a professional framework for this group of people. Provides new and nuanced understanding internationally, in the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘what type’ of advanced practice. Has developed a conceptual picture of the international evidence-base and reported different types of impact in ‘Clinical Practice’, ‘Leadership’, ‘Education’ and ‘Practice Development and Research’. We adhered to EQUATOR guidelines and used the PRISMA-ScR extension for scoping reviews to report the review. Open Science Framework: DOI: https://doi. org/10. 17605/OSF. IO/RT5DW PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: N/A: a literature review.

Semantics

Original Article