25% Reduction in Senior Management Posts Target – National Progress Towards 25% Reduction as at 31st March 2015

25% Reduction in Senior Management Posts Target - National Progress Towards 25% Reduction as at 31st March 2015

1. Introduction

All NHS boards have been asked to develop Local Delivery Plans (LDPs) and workforce plans, as well as using workforce workload tools, in order to assess if service redesign or changes in skill mix are required to best meet the needs of their population. Alongside this, a national target was introduced to reduce the number of senior managers by 25% between 31st March 2010 and 1st April 2015.

The definition of senior manager in this target is determined by the management team of each NHS board, and may include some staff on AfC terms and conditions. This differs from the management figure routinely published by ISD Scotland. Please see section 3. Methodology, below for an explanation of the differences.

The following tables show the number of senior managers in post as at 31st March each year, and the national reduction since March 2010. These statistics are based on management information provided by NHS boards to the Scottish Government.

2. Main findings

The main findings for year 5 of the target (financial year 2015/16) are:

• Senior managers in all NHSScotland boards reduced by 50.9 WTE (or 5.5%) between March 2014 and March 2015.
• Between March 2014 and March 2015, senior managers in NHSScotland territorial boards reduced by 43.5 WTE, (down 5.5%).
• Senior managers in NHSScotland special boards reduced by 7.3 WTE (5.0%) between March 2014 and March 2015.
• The overall reduction in senior management in the five years of the target (financial years 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15) has been 437.0 WTE (down 33.1%), which exceeds the 25% reduction target by 8.1 percentage points.

3. Methodology

The management (non AfC) figure published as part of the ISD national statistics release includes staff on senior manager and executive pay grades. However, some of these posts may be clinically orientated or involve support of frontline services. Further, some NHS boards have a number of posts on AfC that other NHS boards have within their executive or senior manager grades.

To make the national target more consistent, NHS boards were given the opportunity to exclude clinical staff, but include administrative posts on AfC band 8a and above that they would class as part of the their senior managers. The guidance issued to NHS boards regarding the criteria for meeting the national target was issued on 6 December 2010 and placed in the Scottish Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib number 52181).

4. Future plans

Data will continue to be collected, analysed and published annually as part of the ongoing workforce planning and monitoring process.

5. Further information

Although this is a national target, rather than an individual NHS board target, Appendix 1 shows the progress by NHS board.

ISD Scotland produce a broad range of quarterly statistics on NHS workforce as part of the national statistics publication. As noted above, the management (non AfC) figure from the ISD publication will not be the same as the senior manager figure in this target. ISD Scotland are due to publish on 1 September 2015, data on staff in post, vacancies and turnover. Please use link below to view this publication.

There is also the Scottish Government (SG) publication on NHS workforce projections due for release on 25 August 2015. This details whole time equivalent (WTE) changes to all staff groups based on ISD definitions. Please use the link below to view the SG publication.

6. Useful links

UK Statistics Authority, code of practice for official statistics -
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html

ISD Scotland, NHS workforce information -
http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/

Scottish Government, NHS workforce projections -
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent

7. Appendix