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WORKING FOR HEALTH
WORKING FOR HEALTH - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Workforce development has a key role to play in the reform of NHSScotland to improve healthcare services for patients. It is about getting the right people with the right skills to be in the right places at the right time.
Working for Health identifies:
the vital role workforce development will play in the reform of health services, the planning of services and the future of NHSScotland;
the mechanisms for delivery of workforce development at local, regional and national levels;
investment in dedicated workforce development personnel in each NHS Board area;
new roles for three Regional Workforce Co-ordinators designed to make sure workforce development moves forward in a way that integrates with service planning at Board and Regional levels;
the key role for a new National Workforce Committee, serviced by a National Workforce Unit based in the Scottish Executive, to provide national leadership on workforce issues;
action to tackle priority issues on careers, recruitment and retention with the immediate setting up of a Short-life Working Group;
steps to create an employment and careers market for health that includes social care, independent contractors, the wider public sector and the private sector;
plans to drive forward workforce information, planning and employment data in NHSScotland, including investment in improved systems;
a focus on research and the sharing of best practice on workforce development across Scotland.
Working for Health builds on the detailed and valuable work of the Scottish Integrated Workforce Planning Group (SIWPG), and aims to define clearly the actions required to take forward the recommendations of its report,
Planning Together and the Scottish Executive Health Department response of January 2002
1, which set out proposals on workforce development. It also reflects the outcomes of the Workforce Development Action Day held on 15 April 2002 (Appendix 1), which helped to define ways of developing the NHSScotland workforce.
The plan is necessarily detailed. And more work will be needed to make sure the arrangements at regional level in particular are set up to succeed and that they form part of a broader commitment to improved planning and reform.
The integration of service planning with workforce planning at all levels is pivotal and must be achieved if
Working for Health is to be effective. Key to this is the creation of integrated teams with complementary skills and objectives so that the service and workforce remits can be combined.
Working for Health includes a specific commitment to hold regional conventions in autumn 2002, covering the three planning regions, where these issues can be worked through.
It has been designed to be flexible to accommodate any changes in the medium-term that may arise concerning the wider reform agenda and future planning arrangements. It specifically does not add an additional level of bureaucracy, but seeks to ensure there is the right level of professional leadership at all levels to make sure workforce development is driven forward sensibly.
Action, however, needs to be taken now, given the combination of existing "hot" workforce issues already in the system and the absolute need for developing the workforce to make it fit for purpose for the future at a time of unprecedented investment.
Working for Health is directed primarily at managers in NHSScotland as a tool to help them implement the new workforce development arrangements.
However, given the pivotal importance of
Working for Health to the whole NHSScotland workforce, it will also be of interest to staff and others with an interest in the future of health services in Scotland.
Working for Health is in two parts:
Part 1 The Vision for Workforce Development
This sets out the crucial role of workforce development in NHS Scotland now and in the future, putting workforce planning in a wider context of development of a workforce that is fit for purpose.
Part 2 The Action Plan
This sets out the practical steps that will be taken to take this vision forward over the next year at local, regional and national level.
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