Dr Andrew Hill

Head of Podiatry / Education – The SMAE Institute

Andrew is a Podiatrist of nearly 20 years and he achieved his Professional Doctorate from the University of Bath in 2022. His thesis focused on patient and healthcare professional perspectives on foot self-care in diabetes.

Andrew currently heads up The SMAE Institutes Podiatry Degree programme; is an executive committee member for Foot in Diabetes UK (FDUK) and a regional advisor fellow for the Faculty of Podiatric Medicine at The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Andrew also works as an education visitor for the HCPC and undertakes peer-review for a number of academic journals.

Andrew is passionate about developing the future of Podiatry via education and training.

New Frontiers in Podiatry Education

Podiatry in the UK has been identified as an ‘at risk’ profession by Health Education England (now NHS England). This appears to be a problem of both recruitment and retention within the profession. One of the central issues here has been enticing people in to study Podiatry. Accordingly, much thought has gone into reviewing the traditional models of Podiatry training and education and exploring the art of what is possible. Back in 2013, The SMAE Institute conceived of actually developing a long-held dream of the organisation to deliver HCPC-approved Podiatry training. That dream was finally realised in 2020 when the HCPC-approved the BSc (Hons) Podiatry degree programme that The SMAE Institute deliver collaboratively with Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. This talk will provide some interesting context to the challenges and opportunities facing Podiatry education in the UK, and will detail the route that SMAE have taken in developing and delivering a truly historic and innovative programme that continues to go from strength-to-strength.