NHSGGC has a system wide HCSSA programme, chaired by Professor Angela Wallace, Executive Nurse Director and co-chaired by senior HSCP and Medical representatives. The programme was remobilised in summer 2023 and has representatives from all professions that the Act covers as well as leaders from relevant areas of service.
In this video, staff from some of our healthcare disciplines talk briefly about what the Act means for them and their colleagues.
Clinical and Care Staff should review and understand the guiding principles and consider the potential impact, which the video helps to outline. You can also complete the Informed Learning resource on Turas here.
You can contact us at ggc.healthcare.staffing@nhs.scot
Health & Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019
The Health & Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 was enacted in April 2024. It aims to provide a statutory basis for the provision of appropriate staffing in Health and Social Care services to support the delivery of safe and effective high-quality care. This will be achieved by having the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time to improve outcomes for people using our services and improve staff wellbeing.
The Act does not prescribe health care staffing levels or planning and instead supports the development of suitable approaches in various health and social care settings.
We are currently in the ‘implementation phase’ of the programme, in this the enactment year, and will continue to end of March 2025. A link to the Act can be found here: Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019: overview – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
The implementation of the Act will:
- Assure that staffing is sufficient to support the delivery of high-quality care
- Support a culture of honesty and transparency that engages health and social care staff in the relevant process and ensures they are informed regarding healthcare staffing decisions
- Support further improvements to enhance and strengthen current arrangements in healthcare staffing planning and employment practices
- Risk escalation and mitigation processes to enable health and social care staff to be heard at all levels to inform evidence-based healthcare staffing decision-making
- Ensure professional clinical advice is available when healthcare staffing risks are highlighted
What is the role of NHSGGC in the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019?
NHSGGC must:
- Have regard for the guiding principles:
- That the main purposes of staffing for health and care services are to provide safe and high-quality services and to ensure the best health or care outcomes for service users.
- That staffing for health and care services is to be arranged while:
- Improving standards and outcomes for service users;
- Taking account of the needs, abilities, characteristics, and circumstances of different service users;
- Respecting the dignity and rights of service users;
- Taking account of the views of staff and service users;
- Ensuring the wellbeing of staff;
- Being open with staff and service users about decisions on staffing;
- Allocating Staff efficiently and effectively;
- Promoting multi-disciplinary services as appropriate.
Further to this patient-facing clinical services are required to comply with :
- Duty to ensure appropriate staffing (overarching duty)
- Duty to ensure appropriate staffing –agency workers-
- Duty to have real-time staffing assessment in place
- Duty to have risk escalation in place
- Duty to have arrangements to address severe and recurrent risks
- Duty to seek clinical advice on staffing
- Duty to ensure appropriate staffing –number of Healthcare Professionals etc.)
- Duty to ensure adequate time given to clinical leaders
- Duty to ensure appropriate staffing – staff training
- Duty to follow the Common Staffing Method
NHS Scotland Boards and delivery partners must report annually to Scottish Ministers on how they have met the requirements in the legislation and support Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and the Care Inspectorate (CI), as required.
NHSGGC Delivery of HCSSA
NHSGGC agreed to be a ‘test board’ as part of Scottish Governments development of the legislation and its guidance, amongst other Health Boards. From September 2023, the Programmes focus was to review the Acts draft duties and guiding principles using SWOT analysis techniques, in multi-disciplinary teams across the Health Board and our 6 HSCP delivery partners. This has been completed for the Acts guiding principles and the majority of the Duties within the Act. The multi-professional approach and preparation has enabled the Board to establish an Evidence Bank, for where we have compliance with the Act and highlight key activities and actions to be delivered to improve the level of compliance.
As such, the Act will be implemented maintaining the multi-disciplinary planning approach, taking the outputs from the testing of the duties, that have developed from recommendations into driver diagrams to plan out the improvement activities required for compliance. These have translated into a list of actions, prioritised by assurance and risk rating, and are or being assigned to a lead or short life working group.
We are working hard to deliver this in a way that impacts as little as possible on “business as usual” work of our busy clinical colleagues, splitting the duties into separate working groups and meeting regularly to ensure multi professional input are considered and solutions reached by consensus, which has been the core approach to this programme.
We are working cross-organisationally with our colleagues in other NHS Scotland boards to ensure we deliver the Act consistently across Scotland and build a supportive network of subject matter experts. We are committed to understanding the experiences of others and providing learning to everyone involved.
Education and Training for Staff – The Knowledge and Skills Framework
All staff must review and understand the principles of the legislation and consider the impact on their responsibilities to:
- People who use the service
- Colleagues
- NHSGGC
- If appropriate to their profession
They must also take responsibility to escalate to the senior person on shift any immediate concerns about healthcare staffing.
As a clinical leader, you are responsible for supporting teams in their knowledge and understanding of health and care staffing which is inclusive of open and transparent discussions about health and care staffing decisions.
Please refer to ALL Quick Guides relating to the Act.
Please complete:
Learning resources : Informed level | Turas | Learn (nhs.scot)
Learning resources : Skilled level | Turas | Learn (nhs.scot)
For certain identified roles, it is also recommended to complete the expert level:
Learning resources : Expert level / Turas / Learn (nhs.scot)
.
Frequently Asked Questions – Please click on the relevant profession
HCSSA Programme Governance
Programme Board
The Programme Board aims to meet monthly and works within this Governance Structure
Resources and Guidance
Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) Resources
Scottish Government (SG) have published statutory guidance to accompany the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) in collaboration with SG have developed a series of Quick Guides to compliment the statutory guidance relating to NHS services.
The aim of these quick guides is to:
- Provide a quick and easy resource for staff to access
- Provide a simple explanation of parts of the legislation
- Provide practical examples and actions for boards and services
- You can also access the Health and Care Staffing Act Sway presentation, which gives a concise overview of all parts of the Act
- Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)
- HIS – Accessible Resources to Learn about Guiding Principles and Duties in the Act
Care Inspectorate (CI) Resources
- Care Inspectorate – HCSSA Web Pages
- Care Inspectorate – HCSSA Short Guide
Scottish Government (SG) Resources
NHSGGC HCSSA Procedures
VLOGS
- NHSGGC HCSSA – What is a Quick Guide? (Video duration 4:36minutes)
- NHSGGC HCSSA – What is an Assurance Template? (Video duration 10:51minutes)
BLOGS
- Work in progress