Health boards to have less control of workforce planning

NHS workforce planning will be increasingly done at a national or wider regional level, Health Secretary Shona Robison has said.

The recent Audit Scotland report on the NHS warned that managing and planning of the NHS workforce has not kept up with necessary reforms in the way health and social care is delivered.

This is usually done by regional health boards.

RELATED CONTENT

NHS boards 'struggling to break even'

Academy of Royal Medical Colleges calls for fewer unnecessary treatments

Speaking to MSPs of the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee, Robison said: “Workforce planning has been a key part of the NHS for a long time, but it has tended to be done at a board level.

“We have worked with boards to ensure that they land their workforce plan as accurately as possible, but we recognise that we need to take a regional and national approach to workforce planning in a way that we have not previously done.”

She pointed to the January ‘Everyone Matters’ workforce vision but added this could also include elements of the workforce outwith the NHS, like social care.

“I think that there will need to be greater national and regional direction than there was previously,” she said. “Social care is more complex because, in the case of care at home, local government is the employer, so workforce requirements across health and social care will need to be integrated through our integrated plans and the integration joint boards.”

The health and social care workforce “is probably going to change more than we have ever seen before,” she added.

Shirley Rogers, director of the NHS workforce , said: “I endeavour to have a sustainable world-class workforce.”

Health boards have been criticised for disguising cuts as service redesign, but Robison said the Scottish Government’s National Clinical strategy provided “a blueprint” for the way health services should be delivered, and boards should communicate more clearly.

“Boards must be able to set out not just why they want to make changes, but what the new service will look like,” she said.

The number, structure and regulation of health boards are currently under review.