Allied Health Professions Education and Workforce Policy Review: Workforce and Recruitment Subgroup minutes: July 2022

Attendees and apologies

• Kay Sandilands, NHS Lanarkshire
• Anne Wallace, Scottish Government
• Alison Moore, Scottish Government
• Kim Lynch, Scottish Government
• Abby Campbell, Scottish Government
• Lyndsay Turner, Scottish Government
• Fiona Smith, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Paul Williams, NHS Borders
• Kenryck Lloyd Jones, Allied Health Professions Federation Scotland (AHFS)
• David Wylie, NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
• Mags Thomson, Health And Social Care Partnership Representative

Apologies 

• Alistair Reid, Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)
• Allie McMahon, Scottish Government
• Anita Simmers, Council of Deans of Health
• Glenn Carter, Allied Health Professions Federation Scotland (AHPFS)

Items and actions

Welcome and action points from previous meeting

Virtual introductions were made for all those attending and Maggs Thomson was welcomed as the Health and Social Care representation. It was noted that the minutes of the previous Workforce and Recruitment meeting held on 9 June 2022 were agreed and will be published.

Update on previously agreed action points:

• members to let secretariat know if they are content to have their name and organisation on the website page - haven't received any objections - closed
• AHP Safety Huddle Template to be shared - complete
• Scottish Government (SG) Workforce to present on current data – closed as SG Workforce presented at today’s meeting 
• arrange a presentation on the data futures pilot work ongoing around what is likely to be happening in terms of data in the future – in progress, SG have been given a contact who is leading on this project and will make contact to ask if they can present to this group
• Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to put together a profile of how the data can be broken down - to include summary table that shows attrition and also trends – in progress, SG have received a version of this for review to be shared over the coming weeks for comment
• SG colleagues to discuss with NES whether there has been any discussions with HCPC about being able to track students following graduation - in progress
• members to reflect on the meeting and consider any gaps that have not already been covered - ongoing 
• discussions from the meeting to be reflected in the driver diagram – complete 

It was flagged at the Oversight meeting that this group should consider attraction into the workforce after graduation and then also retention. This is separate, but will still link into the work of the Education Solutions subgroup and the initial attraction to professions. SG officials will ensure we are not duplicating the work for the Education Solutions subgroup and will keep members updated on the work of this group.

Action point:

• pick up attraction at a future meeting – 17 August 2022 

Subgroups

It was noted that the highlight report of the previous meeting was agreed and the highlight reports from the other subgroup meetings have been shared. 

Presentation on NHS Scotland workforce statistics

Lyndsay Turner, SG Workforce, presented on NHS Scotland workforce statistics and the following was noted from discussions:

• SG workforce are looking to develop further data through the work of the National Treatment Centres and more detail on secondment and short term opportunities would be helpful 
• there is a challenge around roles such as support workers where staff can work across more than 1 profession, not sitting within one neat professional boundary, and AHPs that work in councils who’s roles might be slightly different as this data is not held in the centrally at the moment
• NHS boards are trying to develop the use of their own data collections and findings with a spotlight on AHPs to take into consideration workforce needs 
• NHS Education for Scotland (NES) will be taking forward work to increase the occupational descriptors and shared data available on NES digital NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence
• SG collate any data that comes in from Boards and there is a workforce projection piece as part of the strategy for the next 10 years with representatives from CNOD on the project team

Action points:

• SG to share presentation slides with the group by 10 August 2022
• Lyndsay to look at how general AHP data can be broken down further, taking into consideration profession specific issues and feedback to group on 17 August 2022
• consider recommendations from the Gill Main report on 17 August 2022 and send link to report to members

AHP workforce planning

Discussions were had around what is needed, what is missing, what the next steps are and at what level can workforce planning realistically be done. The following points were noted:

• gap analysis would be helpful for the group to consider as part of the recommendations
• it is important that Boards continue to collate data and a pulled central collection of data would be beneficial
• knowing who is doing what, and where, would be helpful to know who is accountable for certain pieces of work
• workforce planning is an iterative process, and gaps need to be acknowledged, but work needs to be progressed and addressed rather than waiting for everything to be in place 

It was noted that this will all link into the data futures work that is being carried out. 

NES are looking at where medicine get their data from and are working on how to map out an equivalent model for AHPs.  

Action point:

• link the discussions on workforce planning back to the driver diagram and be clear what workforce planning is and what the realistic level to start working at is by 10 August 2022 

Any other business

The next meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday 17 August 2022 from 9.30 to 11am.