Question reference: S6W-07918
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 7 April 2022
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 May 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many nurses in Scotland retired in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022 to date, and, of these, how many had pre-retirement interviews.
Answer
The requested information on retirement numbers is not centrally held. NHS Education for Scotland publishes annual data on joiners/leavers, but this information is not available by reason for leaving or destination.
Information on joiners/leavers by staff group for each financial year can be found (turnover tab) here: https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/all-official-statistics-publications/01-march-2022-workforce/dashboards/nhsscotland-workforce/?pageid=6429
Health Boards are responsible for conducting pre-retirement interviews and no data is held on this centrally. The Scottish Government would expect Boards to ensure that managers engage with staff at all points within their career as a matter of good practice, including prior to retirement to discuss staff experience and career journeys.
The Scottish Government's 'Supporting the work-life balance' PIN Policy contains provisions for supporting staff approaching retirement, including the opportunity to attend a pre-retirement course where they will have access to a wide range of information to support their retirement planning: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/corporate-report/2015/07/supporting-worklife-balance-partnership-information-network-policies/documents/supporting-work-life-balance-pin-policy-july-2015/supporting-work-life-balance-pin-policy-july-2015/govscot%3Adocument/00481986.pdf
Following receipt of the Royal College of Nursing's recent 'Nursing Workforce in Scotland' report, I was fortunate to attend a roundtable event on 30 March, hosted by the RCN, to hear directly from nurses on their priorities and concerns. These discussions will inform work with Health Boards to explore what more can be done to ensure even greater workforce flexibility.