Safe and effective staffing in health and social care: analysis of responses

Consultation Responses

In total, 73 written responses were received from 31 organisations and 42 individuals. The consultation posed a range of questions on the proposed legislation and what form it may ultimately take.

The organisations that responded fall into the following categories:

• Health & Social Care Partnership – 3
• Independent or Third sector health or social care organisation or committee – 6
• NHS based professional group or committee – 1
• NHS Body or Board – 8
• Other public body – 5
• Professional body, group or union – 8

The headline responses to the quantitative questions are:

• 88% of individuals and 85% of organisations believed it is important to have a coherent legislative framework across health and social care to underpin workforce planning and appropriate staffing in health and social care.
• 95% of individuals and 93% of organisations agree with the proposal that there should be guiding principles for workforce planning to provide NHS Boards and care service providers with a foundation on which to base their staffing considerations.
• 83% of individuals and 67% of organisations agree with the proposed requirements for Health Boards. 15% of individuals and 29% of organisations neither agree or disagree.
• 78% of individuals and 71% of organisations agree with the proposed role for the Care Inspectorate in leading work, with the social care sector, to develop workforce planning tools for application in specified settings, where there is an identified need. 20% of individuals and 13% of organisations neither agree or disagree. 17% of organisations disagree with the proposal.
• 83% of individuals and 54% of organisations agree that social work should be included within the scope of the legislation. 12% of individuals and 27% of organisations neither agree or disagree while 5% of individuals and 19% of organisations disagree.
  *All figures are presented as percentage of responses received to that question

Presented below is a summary of the responses received to each question. Quantitative data has been included where possible, with a summary of the high level themes from the free text responses.

Please note that a single answer may have covered more than one theme, therefore the total responses may be less than the total number of times a theme appeared.

Although a total of 73 responses were received not every question was answered by every respondent, therefore each question will highlight how many responses were received.