NHSScotland Staff Governance Standard (4th Edition)

Cabinet Secretary Foreword

Our Healthcare Quality Strategy for Scotland, which I published in May 2010, recognises that we need to have an engaged, motivated and healthy workforce for us to deliver our Quality Ambitions of delivering world-class, person-centred, safe and effective healthcare services. The Quality Strategy provides a focus for everyone involved in delivering healthcare services in Scotland to reflect on what we are doing and to ensure that all that we do is working towards these shared Quality Ambitions and vision.

This revised Staff Governance Standard provides a framework which is up to date, and supportive of the Quality Strategy's three Quality Ambitions. It sets out what we expect employers to do to develop and manage their staff, and to ensure that all staff have a positive employee experience, and feel motivated and engaged with their job, team and organisation. We know that achieving this will not only have a positive impact on how the organisation performs, but, more importantly, will also impact on the quality of service delivered to everyone, every time.

In line with the Quality Strategy, which recognises that everyone involved has a responsibility to contribute towards high quality care, the revised Staff Governance Standard introduces, for the first time, staff responsibilities in relation to their colleagues, managers, staff for whom they have responsibility, the organisation, patients, their carers and the public. In doing so, it also supports and complements the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 and the healthcare principles contained therein.

We all have a role to play in planning for the delivery of healthcare services in the years ahead. To assist with this, I recently set out a '20:20 Vision' for healthcare - that, by 2020, everyone is able to live longer healthier lives at home or in a homely setting. This recognises that, over the coming years, the demands for healthcare and the circumstances in which it will be delivered will be radically different. How we respond to this will be influenced by factors such as our changing demography and the economic environment.

I recognise that the delivery of this vision will need strong visible and effective engagement and leadership of everyone involved in delivering healthcare services to ensure that we have a shared ownership of the challenges and solutions. I believe that this revised Staff Governance Standard provides an excellent framework to support and enable staff to play their full part in this process. Over the coming months, this will be complemented by a new framework for the workforce in response to a changing strategic context.

In NHSScotland, the unique nature of partnership working, where trade unions and professional organisations, employers, and the Scottish Government work closely together, has ensured that staff are already helping to make and shape policy and influence how services are delivered. Our partnership model - which was recently praised in an Economic and Social Research Council funded study by the University of Nottingham - provides an excellent basis to ensure that this revised Standard is implemented across NHSScotland, and benefits organisations, staff, the public, and ultimately ensures we deliver high quality, safe and effective healthcare services for the people of Scotland in an integrated and collaborative way.

NICOLA STURGEON
Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy