Mental health and wellbeing strategy: consultation

Part 13

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce

In the past decade, mental health services have changed dramatically, with increases in the breadth of support available in community settings, as well as an increase in the provision of highly specialist services. Our people are our biggest asset and we value the essential contribution that workers make in all settings across the country each and every day.

To deliver our ambitions, it is essential that we understand the shape of the current mental health and wellbeing workforce in Scotland, and what the future needs of the workforce are. We must embed an approach based on fair work principles which supports the wellbeing of workers in all parts of the system.

The mental health and wellbeing workforce is large, diverse, and based in a range of services and locations across Scotland. We want to make sure that we are planning for everyone who is part of this workforce. The breadth of mental health services, as well as the range of users accessing them, is illustrated below.

In the Strategy, we want to set out our approach to supporting the workforce building upon the principles and actions set out in the recently published National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care.

Following on from the publication of the Strategy, we will work with partners, including NHS, local authorities and the third sector, as well as people with lived experience of mental ill health and mental health services, to produce a more detailed Workforce Plan.