Introduction
This Workforce Monitoring Report covers the period from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. Every twelve months a Workforce Monitoring Report is presented to NHS Golden Jubilee’s (NHS GJ) Senior Management Team and the Board in line with the Equality Act (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 and the Partnership Information Network (PIN) Policy “Embracing Equality, Diversity and Human Rights in NHS Scotland”. The PIN policy supports monitoring of the protected characteristics of sex, age, race, religion and belief, disability, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment, and pregnancy and maternity, as defined in the Equality Act, and highlights key findings in relation to these protected characteristics. The report also looks at the effect that sickness absence, employee turnover, employee recruitment and work life balance policies have on employees and the service.
Key Findings
Expanding Workforce
The ongoing hospital expansions and our remobilisation efforts post-COVID-19 have contributed to an increase in headcount of 52 when compared to the previous year (2186 v 2134).
Sickness Absence
During the monitored period sickness absence stood at 5.4% of contracted hours. This is lower than 2021-2022, when it came in at 5.7%, but higher than 2020-2021, when it stood at 4.4%, and is higher than the national target of 4.0%. Of all sickness absence, 57.8% came under the Nursing and Midwifery job family, which comprises 43.3% of the workforce.
Between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 the main reason for sickness absence, as recorded on SSTS, was “Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illness”. It accounted for 1.3% of contracted hours and 23.0% of total sickness absence. This is a decrease on the previous year, when it accounted for 27.0% of all sickness absence. Supporting staff mental health is a key priority, and our Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2020-2023 provides support to allow people to develop good mental health habits in the same way it promotes the benefits of physical exercise and a balanced diet.
COVID-19
The amount of absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic fell considerably in 2022/2023 when compared to the previous year. The number of hours of special leave taken due to COVID-19 reasons stood at 39954.4 in the period under review, accounting for 1.0% of contracted hours. The previous year the rate was 2.0%. Sickness absence due to COVID-19 reasons came in at 8143.4 hours (0.2% of contracted hours). A more detailed breakdown of COVID-19 absences is given in Section 6.1 of this report.
Ageing Workforce
Our workforce continues to get older:
- the proportion of those aged 50 to 59 has increased from 22.2% in 2012 to 25.5% in 2023 (although this is down on the 26.7% in 2022);
- the proportion of those working aged over 60 has more than doubled in that time, up from 3.4% to 8.5% (up 0.6% in a year);
- the proportion of those in the 30 to 39 age bracket has fallen by just over 4% from 29.6% to 25.3%. This is an increase of 0.3% on the previous year, when it stood at 25.0%; and
- the proportion of those in the 40 to 49 age bracket has fallen from 31.6% to 25.5% (the same as in 2022).
Some job families are more affected by the ageing population than others: 48.0% of staff in Support Services are aged over 50 (down 0.4% on the previous year); as are 71.4% of Senior Managers (a much smaller job family); 40.8% of staff members in Medical and Dental; and 39.8% of those in Administrative Services.
An understanding of retirement profiles and robust succession planning to ensure sustainability are key workforce priorities. To overcome the risks posed by an ageing workforce HR works closely with managers to develop an integrated approach to workforce planning.
The current potential retirement profile (those aged 60 plus) is 8.5% (up 0.6% on the previous year), but by 2028 this would rise to 20.8%. Over a 5-year period this is a potential significant loss of workforce skills and experience across a wide degree of disciplines. Of our larger job families, the biggest area of impact is within Support Services (37.4%) and Administrative Services (23.1%).
Data Quality
The quality of information held in relation to the protected characteristics of NHS GJ employees has improved considerably since 2013, with a significant decrease in the proportion of staff for whom no information has been provided in regard to the protected characteristics, as can be seen in the chart below. Due to systems issues associated with the implementation of eESS in 2018, the quality of data for each characteristic experienced an inconsistency that year. The most significant of these inconsistencies was with Disability, but the data quality is heading in the right direction again.
