Question
Untitled item
S6W-12961 · Written Question · lodged by Lennon, Monica
Lodged on
02 Dec 2022Heard / answered on
21 Dec 2022To ask the Scottish Government whether it can commit to ensuring that the neurodevelopmental service of NHS Lanarkshire will be fully staffed by the end of January 2023.
The answer
The Scottish Government is committed to improving the mental health and wellbeing of Scotland’s population and to ensuring everyone receives the best possible care and support from our health and care services. Delivering this can only be achieved with the right workforce capacity and capability. This is why we have committed to developing a long-term Mental Health Workforce Plan in the first half of this Parliament.
While each NHS Board rightly has individual responsibility for staffing and recruitment, we recognise the scale of the challenge and seek to provide support at a national level as appropriate. Under this Government, CAMHS staffing has almost doubled (+572.9 WTE) and we are taking several steps to grow the mental health workforce further.
NHS Education for Scotland CAMHS Workforce data, published 6 December 2022, showed there were 124 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) CAMHS workforce staff in post In NHS Lanarkshire as at September 2022 compared to 96 WTE as at September 2021, an increase of 29% [1] This CAMHS workforce data includes Neurodevelopmental staffing.
We are working with all NHS Boards to support them to implement the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care , including working with NHS Lanarkshire through regular Board engagement meetings to discuss ongoing challenges and pressures. This engagement captures ongoing developments around workforce capacity with the most recent update confirming that NHS Lanarkshire have successfully recruited for this area, with only a few posts still to be filled. This activity will continue into early 2023.
[1] Dashboards | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)
While each NHS Board rightly has individual responsibility for staffing and recruitment, we recognise the scale of the challenge and seek to provide support at a national level as appropriate. Under this Government, CAMHS staffing has almost doubled (+572.9 WTE) and we are taking several steps to grow the mental health workforce further.
NHS Education for Scotland CAMHS Workforce data, published 6 December 2022, showed there were 124 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) CAMHS workforce staff in post In NHS Lanarkshire as at September 2022 compared to 96 WTE as at September 2021, an increase of 29% [1] This CAMHS workforce data includes Neurodevelopmental staffing.
We are working with all NHS Boards to support them to implement the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care , including working with NHS Lanarkshire through regular Board engagement meetings to discuss ongoing challenges and pressures. This engagement captures ongoing developments around workforce capacity with the most recent update confirming that NHS Lanarkshire have successfully recruited for this area, with only a few posts still to be filled. This activity will continue into early 2023.
[1] Dashboards | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 21 Dec 2022.