Drugs and alcohol workforce action plan 2023 to 2026

Section B – Our Approach

Workforce Action Plan

Recommendation 13 of the ‘Changing Lives’ report set out that the Scottish Government should:

“Develop and rapidly implement a workforce action plan for the drug and alcohol sector to ensure the workforce is supported, well-trained and well-resourced.”^[23]

This Action Plan serves as our response to that recommendation. This Action Plan reflects what we have heard from our partners and stakeholders across the sector, including those responsible for service delivery and people with lived and living experience of drugs and alcohol use.

We recognise that this Action Plan will not provide the solutions to all current and future challenges and that more will need to be done. However, we believe that a phased and dynamic approach will allow us to regularly review ongoing activity, adapting and responding to new and emerging challenges, innovation and evidence. We acknowledge that achieving and sustaining our ambitious vision will require time and incremental change.

Every action within this Action Plan is aimed at ensuring we are able to grow and retain the workforce and ensure that staff are supported to deliver lifesaving care. If the right workforce is in place, appropriate training and development is available and staff have more manageable caseloads then we can positively impact employee wellbeing, make careers more attractive and support retention.

Support for employee wellbeing is therefore at the heart of our workforce development efforts. However, as acknowledged, the challenges are often deep rooted and complex and will not be reversed upon publication of this Action Plan. These challenges will require sustained action across all five pillars in forthcoming years.

Key Point: the Scottish Government has published a number of key drugs policy documents in recent years. We recognise that at times it can be difficult for those working in services to keep abreast of all such developments. It is not our intention to use this Action Plan to place additional expectations on the workforce. Instead, the aim of this document is to outline the Scottish Government’s workforce priorities over the next three years and set out how, and when, we intend to initiate delivery.

Evidence Base

A number of sources have been used to inform the Scottish Government’s understanding of the challenges facing the drugs and alcohol workforce. Primarily these are:

• ‘Scotland’s Alcohol and Drugs Workforce: A Compendium of Mixed- Methods Research’^[24];
• ‘Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce – ‘Changing Lives’’^[25];
• ‘National benchmarking report on implementation of the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards. 2021/22’^[26];
• ‘Supplementary information for the national benchmarking report on implementation of the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards. 2021/22’^[27]; and
• ‘National benchmarking report on implementation of the medication assisted treatment (MAT) standards 2022/2023’.^[28]

Workforce Expert Delivery Group

In recognition of the challenges impacting upon the drugs and alcohol workforce, the Scottish Government, last year, established the Workforce Expert Delivery Group (WEDG). The WEDG brought together experts from across the sector, with distinct understandings of prevailing challenges.

The WEDG was tasked with considering workforce challenges and helping us to understand how these should be overcome. The WEDG was instrumental in the development of the actions communicated in this Plan.

The WEDG remains extant, and is Chaired by Mark Kelly, Interim Nursing Director for Dumfries and Galloway, reporting to the Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy. The WEDG will provide critical oversight and advice at key stages in delivery of those actions detailed in this Plan.

The ‘Changing Lives’ report^[29] details a number of specific workforce actions, delivery of each one would result in clear benefits. However, it was decided that in order to realise optimal delivery, then these actions would be best delivered through a phased approach with outcomes addressed in three distinct tranches.

Whilst this will mean that delivery of some identified actions will not be progressed immediately, the actions are generally interdependent and progression towards delivery of those in Tranche 1 (2023/24) will simultaneously deliver a number of key steps towards delivery of those actions identified as priorities for Tranche 2 (2024/25) and Tranche 3 (2025/26).

In order to decide which actions should be the focus for each tranche, WEDG members considered the anticipated impact, feasibility and scope and then agreed those of most immediate priority. The Actions Framework, at Annex A, details the specific tranche in which each action will be initiated.