Education qualifications of employees: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/00337
Date received: 11 January 2018
Date responded: 7 February 2018

Information requested

You asked the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates the following:

1. The number of jobs (part-time and full-time) that are available for those who have a degree in psychology.

2. The number of student placements in hospitals available for those who are studying in university and college.

3. How many jobs (full-time and part-time) require a degree or higher qualification.

4. The total amount of money that is spent on wages per annum for full-time and part-time staff.

Response

In 2016-17 the total cost of salaries and wages paid to permanent staff of NHS Scotland was £5.1 billion. The Scottish Government does not hold analysis of these costs across full and part-time staff members. Further information in relation to individual health board expenditure may be sought directly from the relevant board.

Our aim is to provide information wherever possible. In this instance however, I must formally advise you, pursuant to s. 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, that the Scottish Government does not hold information in relation to the requests numbered 1, 2 and 3, as set out immediately above. Our reasons for this, and further relevant information, are set out below. In relation to request number 4, the Scottish Government only holds partial information in relation to expenditure on staffing; detail of total financial expenditure on staffing in the year 2016-17 is provided below.

1. NHS Health Boards in Scotland have fully delegated responsibilities in relation to the recruitment, retention and deployment of staff. NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government do not directly employ NHS staff. Accordingly, the number of staff employed by a health board in any given role, will be determined by population needs in line with boards' service provision responsibilities. As such, the Scottish Government does not hold information in relation to the total number of positions available to those who have a degree in psychology.

2. You may wish to know that NHS Information Services Division produces quarterly workforce statistics, broken down by health board, which set out the current number of staff employed by NHS Scotland boards within the "other therapeutic staff and personal and social care staff" job family. This is broken down by staff grouping, including "psychology". The statistics list staff numbers by pay band; not all roles within the staff grouping will necessarily require post-holders to have a university degree in psychology. Further information can be sought at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/data-tables2017.asp.

Please note that this information is publicly available, pursuant to section 25(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, we do not have to formally provide information that is otherwise reasonably accessible to you.

3. Equally, if you would like to seek more information in relation to the training of clinical psychologists who work for NHS Scotland and the number of posts available on relevant clinical training programmes, along with the academic pre-requisites, this can be sought directly from NHS National Educaiton Scotland, who are responsible for managing the training of psychologists on behalf of NHS Scotland boards, and for the upskilling of the multi-professional workforce engaged in delivering psychological care. Further information can be sought at:

http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/education-and-training/by-discipline/psychology.aspx.

4. In relation to the number of training placements that are available within NHS hospitals for those studying at university and college, once again this information is not held by the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates. The number of placements offered by an individual hospital will be at the discretion of the relevant health board.

5. Finally, in relation to the number of posts within NHS Scotland that require a degree or higher qualification, this will also vary from health board to health board, and by job family. Academic pre-requisites for roles requiring professional registration are determined by the relevant regulatory bodies, including the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Health and Care Professions Council. For other roles, qualifications criteria will be determined at the discretion of the relevant board. As set out above, further information on the number of staff in post across NHS Scotland boards, along with trend information, can be sought via publicly available workforce statistics, published by NHS Information Services Division.

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