Question reference: S6W-16022
- Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 21 March 2023
-
Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 24 April 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to address the reported crisis of staff recruitment and retention in the social care sector.
Answer
There are more than 1,200 social care providers across Scotland, with local authorities responsible for providing or commissioning services. Local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships will wish to ensure that, in providing a range of services, their workforce planning arrangements take full account of the need to have safe and sustainable numbers of staff.
To increase awareness of the careers available in the sector, the latest iteration of our Adult Social Care Recruitment Campaign launched on 25 January. It has an increased media presence to reach a broader audience than previous campaigns.
We have also been working with DWP to hold social care job fairs throughout Scotland, with the next phase of events expected to be delivered in the coming weeks.
We have provided funding to NHS Education for Scotland to lead the delivery of a programme of work to support social care providers to increase workforce capacity through international recruitment. The aim of the programme is to support social care providers to navigate the UK immigration system more easily, and to alleviate some of the administrative burden of the international recruitment process. Expressions of interest will be welcomed from all providers in Scotland, regardless of size or location of their organisation, who feel they could support an international worker to integrate into their community through working in the social care sector. This programme is due to launch in the coming weeks.
In addition we have re-established the Campaign Advisory Group to work on a longer term recruitment strategy to increase capacity across the social care sector.