Healthcare Staffing Operational Framework – quick guide: January 2025

This document aims to provide a high-level overview of the Healthcare Staffing Operational Framework.

1. Aim and purpose

The purpose of this framework is to underpin the Operational Framework: Healthcare Improvement Scotland and Scottish Government and clearly define the key roles and responsibilities of HIS’ Healthcare Staffing Programme (HSP), and the wider organisation, in meeting HIS’ legislative duties.

2. Background

The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 (HCSA), aims to ensure the provision of safe and high-quality services, and the best healthcare or (as the case may be) care outcomes for service users.

The Act stipulates several functions in relation to staffing in which HIS will be required to undertake as follows:

  • 12IP HIS: monitoring compliance with staffing duties
  • 12IQ HIS: monitoring and review of Common Staffing Method
  • 12IR HIS: monitoring and development of staffing tools
  • 12IS HIS: duty to consider multi-disciplinary staffing tools
  • 12IT HIS: duty on Health Boards to assist staffing functions
  • 12IU HIS: power to require information
  • 12IV HIS: ministerial guidance on staffing functions

In line with HIS’ organisational approach and the Guiding Principles of the HCSA, HIS will undertake its legislative duties whilst keeping service users and staff at the centre of its work.

This aims to ensure that healthcare staffing is arranged whilst:

  • improving standards and outcomes for service users
  • taking account of the particular 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, and
  • promoting multi-disciplinary services as appropriate

Consecutively, supporting HIS to meet its overall purpose ‘to drive the highest quality care for everyone in Scotland’.

3. Summary of duties

3.1 HIS 12IP: Monitoring compliance with staffing duties

HIS’ role and function are to monitor how the boards are discharging their duties. HIS will utilise data, evidence and intelligence to demonstrate to the Scottish Ministers that relevant organisations are complying with their HSCA duties. This will enable areas of good practice and constructive areas of learning from events to be identified and shared. It will also allow appropriate improvement support to be provided.

3.2 HIS 12IQ: Monitoring and review of the Common Staffing Method

HIS is required to monitor the effectiveness of the CSM and the way in which relevant organisations apply the CSM, as per Duty 12IJ, and the appropriateness of its application. Scottish Ministers can direct HIS to carry out a review of the Common Staffing Method (CSM). However, HIS anticipates, in practice, that HIS will decide the frequency on which they undertake a review.

3.3 HIS 12IR: Monitoring and development of staffing tools

HIS have a requirement to monitor the effectiveness of all staffing level and professional judgement tools and make recommendations for new staffing tools. The frequency of monitoring will be determined by using:

  • intelligence and feedback from relevant organisations’ experience of using the tools
  • analysis of tool outputs
  • significant policy or practice change within the specialty to which the tool applies

3.4 HIS 12IS: Duty to consider multi-disciplinary staffing tools

When undertaking staffing tool reviews or developments HIS will identify and engage with staff groups who are working as key members of the multi-disciplinary care team within the specialty area to where the tool applies. This will inform whether a multi-disciplinary tool build is required or whether there are other more suitable options.

3.5 HIS 12IT: Duty on Health Boards to assist staffing functions

Every health board must give such assistance to HIS. This information lets HIS perform our functions under sections 12IP to 12IS. HIS will access the appropriate workforce and quality information needed to perform our functions, including, but not limited to, requests to Boards to support the review or development of staffing tools.

Where possible, we will use nationally available data to reduce unnecessary requests and associated data burden on health boards.

3.6 HIS 12IU: Power to require information

HIS may, where necessary, serve a notice on a relevant organisation. The notice will ask them to provide information to enable us to carry out our functions under the act:

  • monitoring compliance with staffing functions
  • monitoring and review of the CSM
  • monitoring and developing staffing tools
  • the duty to consider multi-disciplinary tools

3.7 HIS 12IV: Ministerial guidance on staffing functions

HIS must have regard to any guidance issued by the Scottish Ministers in undertaking its duties 12IP to 12IU after appropriate consultation and publication.

4. Key links and information