What are the lived experiences?
How do ethnic minority AHPs across the fourteen allied health professions describe their career journeys within the NHS in England — from entry through to senior and strategic roles?
Doctoral research
A doctoral study exploring the experiences, barriers and enablers shaping the career journeys of ethnic minority Allied Health Professionals — and what an equitable NHS workforce could look like.
01 · The research
How do ethnic minority AHPs across the fourteen allied health professions describe their career journeys within the NHS in England — from entry through to senior and strategic roles?
Which structural, cultural and interpersonal factors act as barriers or enablers — from recruitment and appraisal to mentorship, sponsorship, visibility and organisational culture?
What can NHS organisations, professional bodies and policy-makers do differently to create equitable pathways into leadership for ethnic minority AHPs?
02 · Why it matters
Allied Health Professionals are the third largest clinical workforce in the NHS, spanning fourteen professions from physiotherapy and radiography to occupational therapy, podiatry and paramedicine. Ethnic minority colleagues make a vital contribution at every level of care.
Yet national workforce data has repeatedly shown that representation thins towards the senior Agenda for Change bands and strategic leadership roles. The talent is there; the pipeline leaks.
Career progression is not just a personal ambition — it is a workforce, equity and patient-care issue.
This study centres the voices of ethnic minority AHPs themselves, moving beyond the statistics to understand how careers are actually lived, negotiated and — too often — constrained.
03 · The doctoral journey
Research training, and a systematic exploration of the literature on career progression and the allied health professions in the NHS.
Refining the research questions, selecting the methodology, and securing university ethical approval.
Current phase
In-depth interviews and online survey to capture AHP career narratives from early career through to senior leadership.
Writing up, examination, and sharing findings with NHS organisations, professional bodies and the AHP community through publications, conferences and this site.
04 · About me
Mariya Yeldhos is a doctoral researcher at the University of Leicester. She completed her Masters in Healthcare Management at the University of Leicester and received a Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Amrita University in India.
Her own journey through the masters dissertation sparked the questions at the heart of this doctorate: why do so many talented ethnic minority colleagues find the staircase steeper than it should be — and what would it take to change that?