Everyone Matters: 2020 health workforce vision - impact assessment

Equality Impact Assessment - Results

Executive summary

The healthcare workforce is central to achieving our Quality Ambitions of safe, effective and person-centred care and the 2020 Vision for healthcare.

We know that the demands for healthcare and the circumstances in which it will be delivered will be radically different in future years due to demographic change, increased public expectations, technological developments and the economic environment. However, in order to achieve our 2020 vision we must ensure that we continue to provide the high quality health service the people of Scotland expect and deserve into the future. These challenges impact on both models of service delivery and the characteristics of the health workforce.

There will need to be changes in:

The culture and way of working for staff which will involve different behaviours for staff and the way in which the public access services;

Reconfiguring how our services are delivered, meaning that people will be doing things in different ways, for example providing round the clock care, working with different people in different places such as in people's homes and in the community;

Developing new skills against the backdrop of public service reform and health and social care and wider integration - to improve access to care and increase efficiency. More support will be given to develop technical literacy.

Valuing the wellbeing of staff and valuing experience. Supporting an ageing workforce and an ageing population.

The 2020 Workforce Vision (due to be launched in June 2013) has been developed through significant engagement with thousands of staff and other key stakeholders and will set out the high level strategic intent for the workforce in NHSScotland. An initial Implementation Plan setting out the detail of how we will deliver will be published by the end of 2013.

The EQIA has been informed by input from policy colleagues, national published workforce statistics, significant consultation with NHSS staff, trade unions, professional organisations and partners in the delivery of healthcare.

Background

Overall the development of Everyone Matters: 2020 Workforce Vision has been informed by the views of around 10,000 NHSS staff, as well as many other key stakeholder groups. This has potentially been the most extensive NHSS wide exercise in listening to staff and seeking their qualitative feedback to help shape strategic direction. This was achieved by:

Extensive engagement through facilitated discussions led by NHS Boards with staff across different staff groups, ages, gender, race. Access to all NHS staff through 24/7 online forum. In overall terms, we can evidence that at least 9,674 individual NHSS staff member views which have informed the development of the 2020 Workforce Vision (6.2% of the NHSS headcount as at 31 December 2012).

Consultation feedback was sought directly from identified key stakeholder organisations and groups. In addition, the 2020 Workforce Vision website was re-launched in order to enable responses from individuals, including members of NHSScotland staff.

Including those who provided input during the very early stages of this work, as well as levels of participation within a number of Boards for which we cannot currently account, we can be reasonably confident in assuming that the final 2020 Workforce Vision launched at the 2013 NHSScotland will have been informed by the views of at least 10,000 members of staff, as well as a good spread of wider key stakeholder organisations and groups.

The Scope of the EQIA

The consultation draft developed thereafter was sent to a wide range of stakeholder groups for consideration, including NHS Boards, primary care providers, patient focus and public involvement groups, trades unions, professional organisations, Scottish Government Health & Social Care directorates, relevant NHSScotland national groups/committees, local authorities, Community Health Partnerships, education bodies, statutory regulatory bodies and third sector partners.

The 2020 Workforce Vision website was redeveloped to provide a means by which individual staff members could review the key themes which arose from the initial engagement phase and submit their comments on the outline 2020 Workforce Vision. NHS Boards were asked to encourage their staff to access the website and feedback on the document.

Focus group research was commissioned in order to enable us to ensure that the final, post-consultation 2020 Workforce Vision would resonate with all staff and would not have the effect of excluding any particular staff groups or pay bands/grades of staff.

Key Findings

No negative effects on the protected characteristics of the NHSS workforce. All NHSS employers are required to have clear strategies and supporting policies in place for the effective management of the workforce, equality, diversity and human rights, and dignity at work agenda.

All NHSS employers are required to ensure that all workforce policies are implemented fairly and consistently, monitored and evaluated, and subjected to regular review to ensure their ongoing fitness for purpose.

Recommendations and Conclusion

While no further action was identified at this stage, it will be important to ensure that further assessment is undertaken to support the next phase of work which will develop the Implementation Framework and key actions.

Further planned engagement and engagement will ensure that work is informed by the people that it will support.