Source: https://beta.gov.scot/publications/national-health-social-care-workforce-plan-part-2-framework-improving/pages/2/
Timestamp: 2018-07-22 03:06:46
Document Index: 477475101

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 2', 'art 1', 'art 3', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 1']

1. This document, jointly agreed by COSLA and Scottish Government is Part 2 of the 2017/18 National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan, for Social Care in Scotland. Part 1 was published in June 2017; Part 3 will be published in early 2018. Work arising from the recommendations in the three parts of this plan aims to enable the production of a combined Health and Social Care Workforce Plan in 2018.
2. The purpose of each part is to support organisations that provide health and social care services to identify, develop and put in place the workforce they need to deliver safe and sustainable high-quality services to Scotland’s people. The iterative process being undertaken aims to enable the many organisations involved in commissioning, delivering and supporting services to work together over time to help deliver a whole system approach to workforce planning for health and social care.
3. Part 2 acknowledges some of the distinct challenges for workforce planning in the social care sector. These include the complexity of service provision and commissioning; the ramifications of the dominant market dynamic; the distinct challenges within rural and urban areas; the current financial environment and resource constraints; the substantial changes taking place in service delivery; and the impacts of social and technological change on demand for services and on workforce skill requirements and supply. It outlines specific areas within this context that have been identified as initial priorities for action, including the need to improve the evidence base for workforce planning, the need to further engage partners across the sector in planning activity and the need for workforce planning tools that are developed with the sector, for the sector. This document also highlights a number of existing workforce challenges that are priorities for action now, including recruitment and retention, improved opportunities for career progression and addressing skill needs through improvement to training and education.
4. The following recommendations arise from engagement between Scottish Government, COSLA and other key partners involved in the delivery of social care in Scotland. They build on the development of Part 1 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan – a framework for improving workforce planning across NHS Scotland.
5. Delivery of these recommendations and improved national and local workforce planning across the health and social care sector can only be delivered through extensive partnership working across these sectors. For the recommendations in Part 2, this means, in particular, working with the organisations that commission and provide services and/or their representative bodies. Turning these initial priorities into action requires engagement between the Scottish Government, COSLA, Scottish Social Services Council ( SSSC), Care Inspectorate, Integration Joint Boards ( IJBs) and other key partners and stakeholders including, critically, employers in the third and independent sectors. The National Workforce Planning Group established under Part 1 of this Workforce Plan will play a role as a key vehicle for engagement with many of these partners.
6. The seven recommendations aim to begin a process that will improve national and local workforce planning for social care in Scotland to help ensure we get the right people into the right place, at the right time, to deliver sustainable and high-quality services with improved outcomes for those who use them.
Data, analysis, tools and guidance to support workforce planning
To enable better collation of health and social care workforce data to support national and local workforce planning. This will draw on the work of the Scottish Social Services Council and the Care Inspectorate and take place in alignment with the work being led by NHS Education for Scotland on the NHS Scotland workforce in response to Part 1 of the Plan. The work will contribute to the wider, whole system approach required for health and social care in the future.
To develop guidance for Integration Joint Boards and their commissioning partners in local authorities and NHS boards that supports partnership working for the formulation of workforce plans at regional and local level that include consideration of the third and independent sector workforce. This work will aim to:
make use of the work delivered under recommendation 2 above, to develop improved understanding and awareness of the impact of market mechanisms in social care;
To develop proposals for enhanced career pathways within social care, recognising the context of the developing multidisciplinary, integrated workforce environment. The third and independent sectors, as employers of the great majority of the social care workforce, will be essential partners in this work. Consideration will be given to:
work being developed under Part 1 of the National Workforce Plan, such as a review of learner and student support across the health and social care workforce and promotion of careers in schools.