Everyone Matters: 2020 Workforce Vision - Implementation Framework and Plan 2014-15

5. Implementation plan 2014-15

5.1 The 2014-15 plan

Over the next seven years, all NHS Boards are expected to deliver the commitments set out in Everyone Matters: 2020 Workforce Vision. This will not be achieved through business as usual, compliance and a tick box culture. Real, transformational change will be needed. Delivering Everyone Matters: 2020 Workforce Vision is everyone's business.

A series of annual implementation plans will provide a structured approach for delivering the workforce vision commitments and will outline the support that will be given to Boards. The implementation plan for 2014-15 intentionally focuses on the health service in Scotland. Once legislation for health and social care integration has been enacted, the focus will be extended beyond health to include social care.

The commitments in Everyone Matters have been grouped into five areas which represent the long-term priorities for action. A table showing how the commitments are grouped is provided on the workforce vision website. The diagram below shows the five priorities and how they support the 2020 Vision for Health and Social Care.

Priorities for action

This first implementation plan is for the 2014-15 financial year. The actions in this plan support delivery of the commitments in Everyone Matters. This plan sets out the minimum actions that need to begin during 2014-15; some will take longer than one year to complete. Boards are encouraged to start this work as soon as possible.

It is essential that progress is made as the next implementation plan will introduce new, additional actions. Progress will be monitored through Local Delivery Plans and Annual Reviews.

When Everyone Matters: 2020 Workforce Vision was published in June 2013, Boards were asked to make early progress in embedding the core values. Progress against this commitment will be reviewed as a priority.

Many of the relevant systems and processes for delivering the priorities for action are already in place. The challenge we face is ensuring the actions are implemented and used in ways that reflect our shared values and support the commitments in Everyone Matters: 2020 Workforce Vision.

The priorities for action in 2014-15 focus on the following:

• developing and sustaining a healthy organisational culture to create the conditions for high quality health and social care. The focus this year is on embedding the shared values in everything we do.
• changing the health workforce to match new ways of delivering services and new ways of working; ensuring that people with the right skills, in the right numbers, are in the right jobs; promoting the health and well-being of the existing workforce and preparing them to meet future service needs. Strengthening workforce planning is identified as one of the early actions.
• ensuring that all staff are appropriately trained and have access to learning and development to support the Quality Ambitions and 2020 Vision for Health and Social Care. The focus this year is on ensuring that development reviews/appraisals are meaningful, providing fair access to learning and development for support staff, and building capacity and capability to improve the quality of what we do.
• ensuring that the workforce is more joined-up across primary and secondary care, across Boards and with partners across health and social care. The focus this year is on developing the right conditions for an integrated workforce.
• ensuring that managers and leaders are valued, supported and developed. Managers and leaders are part of the workforce and have a key role to play in driving service and culture change. The focus this year is on supporting and developing line managers, particularly their people skills.

5.2 Guidance

This section provides guidance to NHS Boards on the implementation process and what is expected of them when working together and with partner organisations.

a) Considerable work is already being carried out locally and nationally which supports Everyone Matters. This plan focuses on the additional work that is needed to ensure the workforce vision becomes a reality.

b) Although responsibility for delivery rests mainly with NHS Boards, they will be supported by work taken forward at a national level, for example through the development of good practice guidance and national policy standards.

c) It may not be possible to complete some of the actions within the timeframe of this plan and additional work may be required in subsequent years.

d) An overview of progress against this first plan will be made in 2015.

e) The next implementation plan will build on this first set of actions, review the priorities and make any adjustments that are needed.

f) NHS Boards are expected to:

• make use of performance information and sources of intelligence, such as staff and patient survey results, to inform the work they do and how they prioritise local actions
• engage with staff, stakeholders and partner organisations in planning this work, building on the collaborative approach adopted so far
• ensure that the way they take this work forward reflects the NHSScotland core values and the Staff Governance Standard
• adopt a flexible approach to delivery to avoid duplication and ensure that ongoing work is sufficient and fully aligned to this implementation plan
• make connections when developing local programmes of work recognising that many of the actions in this plan are cross-cutting and support more than one priority
• ensure that effective arrangements are in place locally to monitor progress
• provide assurance, through Local Delivery Plans, that appropriate improvement work is being planned and carried out in support of the Everyone Matters commitments generally, and that progress is being made against the priorities and specific actions set out in this plan.