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WORKING FOR HEALTH
Appendix 3 Ongoing Workforce Initiatives in NHSScotland
Facing the Future, the national initiative on recruitment and retention for nurses and midwives across Scotland. The arrangements to be established through this Action Plan will play a pivotal role in ensuring co-ordinated and integrated approaches to nurse and midwife recruitment and retention at all levels in NHSScotland.
Future Practice, the Temple Report on medical workforce planning, which makes a number of recommendations on workforce planning for doctors and addresses related issues on basic medical education, recruitment and retention, education and training, and new career structures. Much of this work will be taken forward through the workforce development arrangements detailed in this Action Plan.
The Report on the Modernisation of the SHO grade, which will be recommending a programme-based approach to the training of Senior House Officers. By increasing the time spent on structured training and thereby reducing the amount of service contribution these doctors-in-training can provide, this report could impact significantly on service capacity, with knock-on effects for other medical grades and on the whole healthcare team.
Service Frameworks. These include strategies such as the Cancer Plan, the Maternity Services Framework, the Mental Health Framework and the forthcoming CHD/Stroke strategy. These will all be supported and facilitated by the actions to be taken on workforce development.
The work of the Centre for Change and Innovation. The Centre will help facilitate the reform agenda by fostering and aiding local initiatives to redesign services, and developing the capacity in the NHS to do so. The workforce development arrangements outlined in this Action Plan will complement the
Centre for Change and Innovation, helping it take forward the change programme and ensuring that the workforce aspects are fully considered.
Regional service planning arrangements. HDL (2002) 10, circulated in January 2002, outlined new arrangements for regional service planning in NHSScotland. These regional planning mechanisms will need to be integrated with the regional workforce arrangements to ensure that regional workforce considerations are joined up with the planning of regional services.
The coming together of these two aspects in an energetic and substantive programme of regional service networks is a crucial development.
The Report Building on Success - Future Directions for the Allied Health Professions in Scotland. This will have significant workforce implications, not just in terms of assessing capacity, but also in forging new modes of working, changes in skill mix, and developments in the roles and responsibilities of members of the whole healthcare team.
NHS Education for Scotland will bring a strategic focus to cross-disciplinary approaches to learning and working across the NHSScotland workforce, and will play a key role in bringing education and training perspectives to the assessment of workforce supply and the development of the right skill sets for the future.
Workforce strategies for other staff groups, including managerial, administration, scientific, support and ancillary staff, and the development of careers pathways for these staff, facilitated by the new
Agenda for Change pay system. These will need to be addressed and incorporated into the workforce development agenda.
Consultation Paper on Abolition of the Scottish Medical Practices Committee (SMPC). Abolition will be effected through provisions in the Public Appointments and Public Bodies Etc (Scotland) Bill. The SMPC's core functions in planning and distribution of the GP workforce will transfer to Primary Care Trusts and NHS Island Boards. Checks and balances to ensure that the needs of - and the opportunities provided by - general practice receive proper consideration will be provided by the three regional groups and the National Workforce Unit. The regional groups will also consider appeals made by GPs against decisions made by Primary Care Trusts and Island NHS Boards.
The Development of a UK Sector Skills Council (SSC) for Health, which will help create a workforce that is fit for purpose by:
developing the right skills for the health sector
influencing the planning and funding of education and training
forging links with the education sector to attract young people into careers
working in partnership with employers, trade unions and professional bodies.
The workforce development arrangements outlined in this Action Plan will work hand-in-hand with the SSC for Health to ensure that it is responsive to Scotland's needs while also reaping the benefits of operating within a UK-wide context.
The work of employment agencies and other institutions influencing labour market movements. Workforce development for NHSScotland needs to be seen from the perspective of the wider labour market within Scotland, and to be informed by the factors governing supply and demand of labour across all public services, and more specifically for health. There are important roles to be played here - at UK, Scottish and local levels - by the employment agencies and educational institutions which influence the gearing of supply to demand. We therefore see NHS Boards, the regional workforce groups and the National Workforce Unit linking closely with organisations such as
Jobcentre Plus, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and
Careers Scotland to ensure that workforce development for NHSScotland is clearly positioned within this context.
The Junior Doctors' New Deal Implementation Support Group, the Working Time Regulations Solutions Group, and the Working Time ad hoc Group of the Scottish Partnership Forum. These groups are addressing the impacts of health and safety legislation and contractual obligations on working time, which are recognised to be among the key overarching challenges facing NHSScotland today. Taken in conjunction with other developments in modes of healthcare delivery, they are major agents of change and powerful drivers of redesign.
A generic approach to ensuring that all staff groups in NHSScotland are fit for purpose. The Bristol Inquiry demonstrated the need for a coherent and consistent approach to ensuring that all parts of the NHS workforce are fit for purpose, not only in relation to clinicians and other professional staff, but also in the case of administrators and managers. This is an area that we will be developing in the light of the recent consultation on the proposed Quality and Standards Board for Scotland, and in taking forward existing policies on under-performing staff.
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