ISBN : 0 7480 9605 1
Dear Colleague
1. Learning Together, the Education, Training and Lifelong Learning Strategy for the NHS in Scotland, was launched by the Minister for Health and Community Care on 3rd December 1999.
2. This is the first of a series of circulars under the Learning Together identity which will give advice and guidance on putting the Strategy into effect.
ACTION
3. General Managers and Chief Executives are asked to take action now to:
4. General Managers and Chief Executives are invited to:
5. The mechanisms for inviting bids for best practice demonstration projects will be determined by the Strategy Implementation Group as soon as possible and we will write to you again once the details are known.
6. Further detail on the matters in paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 is given in the attached Annex.
7. Please arrange to copy this circular for information to your local Partnership Forum and to all contractors to your organisation who provide health services in your area, including GPs and GDPs.
8. This circular, and future circulars in this series, will be placed on the Scottish Executive web site at www.scotland.gov.uk/learningtogether/
Yours sincerely
GERRY MARR
Director of Human Resources
General Managers, Health Boards
Chief Executives, NHS Trusts
General Manager, State Hospital
Chief Executive, Scottish Ambulance Service
General Manager, CSA
Scottish Partnership Forum members
Chief Executive, Health Education Board for Scotland
Director, Scottish Health Advisory Service
Executive Director, SCPMDE
Chief Executive, NBS
NHS Librarians
Cathy Hewit or Clare Collin,
Room 143,
St Andrew’s House
EDINBURGH EH1 3DG
Tel: 0131-244 5088 or 5089
Fax: 0131-244 2837
e-mail: catherine.hewit@scotland.gov.uk
Adopting the Principles
1. When Susan Deacon, Minister for Health and Community Care, launched Learning Together on 3rd December 1999, she emphasised that this Strategy is an essential part of the Scottish Executive’s commitment to modernising the NHS in Scotland. She asked NHS boards, managers and service planners to raise learning further up the agenda. She is anxious that real progress is made promptly, and regards this as a key performance issue.
2. The culture shift which Learning Together seeks is at the core of the modernisation process to which the Scottish Executive and the NHS in Scotland is committed. It requires visible and inspirational leadership from the top of each NHS organisation in Scotland and a commitment to partnership working.
3. Learning Together, and in particular the section headed Making a Difference, sets out a number of specific action points for the Management Executive, NHS employers, professional, educational and staff representative bodies. These action points fall into three broad categories:
This Annex provides more detail on those actions which NHS employers can and should take as soon as possible, involving their Local Partnership Forums as appropriate
Implementing Learning Together
4. A Strategy Implementation Group (SIG) is being set up under the chairmanship of Neil Campbell, General Manager of Dumfries and Galloway Health Board, in consultation with the Scottish Partnership Forum. The SIG will be based on the PIN Board model and will report jointly to the Scottish Partnership Forum and the Scottish Executive. The diagram in Appendix A summarises the implementation mechanism.
5. The role of the SIG will be to co-ordinate and drive forward the implementation of Learning Together. Its first task will be to agree a full implementation plan, and to establish a number of project groups to identify action or best practice applicable to the whole Service.
Local Action
6. There are various actions which can and should be taken locally involving Local Partnership Forums as appropriate. These do not have to await the implementation plan. If they have not already done so, each Health Board and NHS Trust should now assess the implications for them of Learning Together and set action in train. The key actions are summarised as follows:
i). Establish local mechanisms for communication and implementation
a) Establish mechanisms at board/ senior management level for implementing Learning Together. They should suit local circumstances, and could be special committees or Directors of Education or other arrangements. They should support clinical governance, quality health care and partnership working, and should cover all staff.
b) Arrange to communicate the messages of Learning Together to all staff. Further copies of the strategy, leaflets and posters, and overhead projector slides can be obtained if required from the contacts given at the end of this annex.
ii). Identify a person to lead Learning Together locally. That person should take responsibility and be accountable for effective local implementation of the Strategy. He or she must have the necessary authority, commitment and support and should be at board or senior management level. Please let the project team, detailed in paragraph 10, know who that person is by 31st March.
iii). Consider now with your local Partnership Forum what the key issues are for preparing and implementing local Learning Plans. This will help you to build learning issues into this year’s HIPs and TIPs. It will start the process towards publication of the first year’s local Learning Plan by the end of 2000. The consultation which the Management Executive will carry out later this year on the scope and content of local Learning Plans will draw on your initial experiences in developing the first year’s plan. (paragraphs 3.7, 3.11 to 3.13 of Learning Together)
iv). Ensure that from April 2000, workforce needs assessments are submitted to your board as part of any proposal to develop services. (paragraph 3.8)
v). Lift restrictions on access to study facilities under your control (such as NHS libraries and postgraduate education centres) by the end of 2000 (paragraph 3.20).
vi). Pursue the targets for SVQs. The Good Practice Guide on SVQs will assist with this. The contact on the Guide is Margaret Hunter at Yorkhill NHS Trust (0141 201 0160). The Management Executive will be consulting on the best way to support expanded use of SVQs and will then set more specific targets. (paragraph 4.9)
vii). Meet take-up levels for Return to Learn indicated in guidance issued on 17th September 1999. (paragraph 4.11)
viii). Review action on the New Deal for the unemployed under the Welfare to Work Strategy. The Management Executive intends to examine performance against those targets in the near future. (paragraph 4.11)
ix). Provide induction training for all new staff. Where this has in the past been absent, at least a basic level of induction training should be given from now onwards, and arrangements made to improve consistency and quality. (paragraph 4.13)
x). Put mechanisms in place for all staff to have personal development plans by the end of 2000, backed up by the opportunity to discuss their learning needs at regular intervals (paragraph 5.7).
Good Practice and Local Initiative
7. The Strategy Implementation Group will establish projects to identify the best practice sought by Learning Together. Central funding may be available for demonstration projects which use the knowledge and skills within the NHS in Scotland to generate improvements in practice. Examples include:
8. The mechanisms for bidding for project funding will be agreed with the Strategy Implementation Group as soon as possible and we will write again with details. In the meantime the Management Executive invites Health Boards and Trusts to provide brief information on any initiatives related to Learning Together which are proving particularly innovative and effective. These will not be treated as bids but should help us to define invitations to bid.
9. The Management Executive also wishes to tap the enthusiasm of individuals with a particular contribution to make to the promotion of learning for the NHS in Scotland. You are asked to nominate any staff who you feel would fall into this category, and indicate the scope for secondment, for leading a work area from within their present employment, or for participation in working groups etc.
Contacts
10. The contacts for the project team dealing with the implementation of Learning Together within the Management Executive are:
Cathy Hewit: 0131 244 5088: catherine.hewit@scotland.gov.uk
Clare Collin: 0131 244 5089: clare.collin@scotland.gov.uk
Further guidance
11. Further information and guidance will be issued as it becomes available. This will include in particular the implementation plan and the bidding process to be developed with the Strategy Implementation Group.
Human Resources Directorate
Scottish Executive Health Department
6 March 200
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