Workforce planning
Workforce planning
Effective workforce planning ensures we have the right people in the right place at the right time to continue to deliver high quality care that meets the needs of Scotland’s population.
Workforce planning is a statutory requirement and was established in NHSScotland in 2005 with HDL (2005) 52: National Workforce Planning Framework 2005 - Guidance. This provided boards with a base for establishing workforce planning as an important part of the wider planning systems within NHSScotland. The guidance was revised in 2011 with the Chief Executive's letter - CEL 32 (2011) and then again in 2022 with the Directors Letter on three year workforce plans (DL(2022)09.
All NHS health boards are required to develop workforce plans, as well as using workforce workload tools. These are used to assess if service redesign or changes in skill mix are required to best meet the needs of their population.
We published the following guides on workforce planning:
- Part 1 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan (June 2017) sets out how we will work with partners to secure sustainable NHS staffing.
- Part 2 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan (December 2017) published jointly with COSLA introduces a framework for improving workforce planning for social care in Scotland.
- Part 3 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan (April 2018) sets out our strategy to recruit new and retain existing GPs, along with our plans for the wider primary care workforce.
The NHS Scotland Strategic Workforce Plan for 2022 to 2025 is on the NHS Education for Scotland website.
Healthcare staffing programme
We are working with NHS boards to improve workload and workforce planning to meet the obligations of the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019. Read more about about the healthcare staffing programe on the Healthcare Improvement Scotland website.
Workforce data
NHS Scotland workforce data are on the Turas Data Intelligence website.