Drugs and alcohol workforce action plan 2023 to 2026

Attract

What is the wider challenge across the Health and Social Care sector?

Our education system is key to the creation of effective employment pathways into Health and Social Care. We need to better utilise this system to create interest and attract people to develop careers within the sector.

Over the last two years, multiple factors have resulted in significant shifts and labour market changes. As a result, we need to be recruiting people through alternative routes and maximising the pool of talent we already have available in Scotland.

Our ageing population ensures that we need to focus on the attraction, recruitment, and retention of young people as well retraining and upskilling new people into the workforce. Through all of this we must aim to improve equality, diversity, and inclusion to ensure we benefit from different lived experiences, perspectives, ideas, and skills and promote fair working practices which will attract and retain highly skilled workers.

What needs to change within the drugs and alcohol sector?

Recruitment remains a significant challenge for the drugs and alcohol sector and addressing this challenge is of critical focus to all workforce development plans. We know that attitudes towards careers in drugs and alcohol services can be negatively impacted by the stigma that too often exists towards people who use these services. Working in the drugs and alcohol sector is too often perceived as less attractive than other roles in Health and Social Care.

We must take steps to make the sector an attractive place to work. Attracting people to the sector through effective recruitment is a core aspiration of all drugs and alcohol workforce development. However, recruiting more staff without steps to improve retention, will lead to further problems, with recruitment becoming a continuous cycle draining more time from those already working in services. By improving retention and service design the sector will become more attractive to prospective employees.

We also need to focus on improving workforce diversity and addressing the challenges of recruiting staff in rural and remote areas. We will continue to engage with those delivering local services in these areas to ensure their needs are considered in the implementation of the actions set out in this Plan.

What have we done so far?

Challenge

Short term funding of services can result in low salaries and/ or fixed term roles which can dissuade potential applicants.

We are aware of the challenges that can result from the annual funding cycle and that this is an issue which has impacted services of all types.

Outcome

In order to mitigate the impact, over half of the Scottish Government’s funding allocation provided to NHS Boards to support ADPs is baselined to the value of over £57 million. In 2023/24 the Scottish Government issued the £17 million Programme for Government allocation to ADPs on a recurring basis. This will also be moved into Board baselines for 2024/25.

The Scottish Government has also committed £65 million to third sector and grass roots organisations for distribution via Corra Foundation. These funds are accessible on a multi- year basis, and currently support over 300 projects across Scotland.

Action 5

The Scottish Government has made, and will continue to make, multi-year funding available to drugs and alcohol services.

Timeline

Ongoing.

What will we do next?

Challenge

To ensure the drugs and alcohol workforce is recognised and valued for the work that it does.

It is important that we recognise the drugs and alcohol workforce’s role in saving and improving lives. Improved public awareness of the vital work undertaken will not only empower staff but will also raise their profile and ensure that the sector is viewed as a more attractive place to work.

Whilst for many people who use drugs and alcohol, complete abstinence is their chosen aspiration, and they should be supported to achieve this; for others a reduction, or a more stable pattern of use is a success. It is important that the role of the workforce in supporting all improvements is recognised and celebrated. Where abstinence is regarded as the only barometer of success, then this can be demoralising for the workforce when this is not achieved.

Action 6

We will capitalise on all opportunities to raise awareness of the lifesaving work undertaken by those employed in the drugs and alcohol sector, ensuring that they are afforded equal status with colleagues in other settings.

Timeline

Initiated Tranche 1 (2023/24).

Challenge

The need to improve pathways for people to enter and develop careers within the drugs and alcohol sector.

The sector has significant vacancies and higher rates often exist within clinical roles, which often require more extensive training. We need to attract people at an early stage, with options for further study.

Outcome

The Scottish Government will explore how we can improve the availability of specialist modules and ensure they are embedded into courses which can prepare people for careers within the drugs and alcohol workforce.

The Scottish Government will explore whether targeted and accelerated pathways into the sector could be developed. This could include alternatives to full-length courses, such as apprenticeships, which shorten timescales but also provide vital work experience. Shortened or fast-track courses which exist in other areas of the Health and Social Care workforce may be replicated in the drugs and alcohol sector.

Wider reflection is also required as to how drugs and alcohol issues should be included in wider Health and Social Care courses to ensure that prospective employees are provided with some understanding of issues in preparation for their future careers. One such example of this, funded by the Scottish Government in 2022/23, was collaborative work between the University of Glasgow’s Humanising Healthcare Forum; North-West (Glasgow) Recovery Communities; and the Scottish Recovery Consortium. This initiative brought together, outside of a clinical setting, student doctors and people with lived and living experience for educational discussions about substance use and recovery.

Action 7

We will improve pathways in to the drugs and alcohol sector and seek to improve understanding and knowledge of drugs and alcohol amongst the potential future workforce.

Timeline

To be initiated in Tranche 3 (2025/26).