15 million funding allocation ahead of winter planning for health and social care: FOI release

Information requested

1. Further to the Ministerial Statement on 5/10/21 on Winter Planning for Health and Social Care, please provide a breakdown of how the £15 million in funding for “further options to maximise capacity, such as through targeted incentivisation payments” was spent.
2. Please provide a copy of any review which was conducted of this funding and the associated measures, or discussions of its effectiveness. Please include copies of all correspondence, documents, reports, minutes, letters and emails.

Response

Question 1

Targeted incentivisation payments were not introduced in the 2021/22 financial year. As set out in the Ministerial Statement, the introduction of such measures would be subject to further engagement with NHS Scotland employers, in order to determine the nature and structure of any incentivisation scheme. Crucially, any such payments would need to buy additional capacity and directly contribute to supporting health service resilience (the relevant excerpt from the statement is set out immediately below).

“…In addition to those measures, we continue to work with staff and employers on further options to maximise capacity, such as through targeted incentivisation payments, and we have identified inyear funding of up to £15 million to support that. We will work with employers to ensure that any targeted measures that are introduced are right for them, buy additional capacity and support service resilience...”

Following engagement with both NHS Scotland employers and with NHS Scotland staff-side (trades union) representatives on this matter, it was concluded that targeted incentivisation payments would not necessarily have the desired effect in terms of supporting additional capacity and enhancing service resilience.

The in-year funding of up to £15 million announced in the Ministerial Statement to support the introduction of targeted incentivisation payments was re-directed to support winter health and social care delivery and resilience. This included the rapid further acceleration of the winter vaccinations programme and our Boosted by the Bells campaign, in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Question 2

Further to the response provided to question 1 above, targeted incentivisation payments were not introduced, and consequently it has not been necessary to review the introduction of such measures. The funding identified was redirected to support other aspects of winter service planning and delivery, including the Covid-19 vaccinations programme.

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