SNP NHS MISMANAGEMENT REVEALED

A damning Audit Scotland report has revealed the scale of the SNP’s mismanagement of our NHS.

The report details the SNP staffing crisis in our health service, which began under Nicola Sturgeon when she was Health Secretary.

It states:

• There has been a 107 per cent increase in agency spending from 2011/12 to 2016/17 – from £82.8 million to £171.4 million.
• One in three NHS staff are now over the age of 50.
• There is a 4.5 per cent vacancy rate among nurses and midwifes – up from 1.8 per cent in 2011/12.
• There is a 7.4 per cent vacancy rate among consultants – up from 3.6 per cent in 2011/12.

This report reinforces our warnings that the SNP has presided over a workforce crisis in our NHS, leaving staff over-worked, under-valued and under-resourced.

Staff morale is at rock bottom in the health service, with staff reporting there simply aren’t enough of them to do the job properly.

As Audit Scotland confirms, this is part of the legacy left by Nicola Sturgeon who as Health Secretary slashed the number of training places for nurses and midwives.

Scotland now has a Health Secretary, Shona Robison, who is out of her depth and out of ideas. That is why our health service is in desperate need for a meaningful workforce plan.

We have established a workforce commission that will bring together professionals from across the NHS, representing different sectors, who will together examine the underlying causes for this staffing crisis and develop a strategy to tackle it.

You can read more about our workforce commission here

Read the Audit Scotland report here

We need a government that will fix the problems in our NHS. Agree? Join the Labour Party here

Thousands of apprentices in Scotland are being paid less than the National Minimum Wage.

A total of 14 per cent of apprentices across the country get less than £5.55 per hour – while 2.2 percent are earning less than £2.67 per hour.

Low pay is particularly endemic in certain professions, with 42 per cent of hairdressing apprentices earning less than the minimum wage.

We have called on the SNP government to not certify Modern Apprenticeships through Skills Development Scotland if they are found to be paying less than the National Minimum Wage.

The National Union of Students Scotland has also raised concerns about the issue.

The call is part of our summer campaign, For The Many, which this week is focusing on improving the lives of the next generation of Scots.

The number of childcare providers has fallen to the lowest level on record, despite the SNP promising a ‘revolution’ in childcare.

New figures reveal the number of childcare providers is down by almost 1,000 since 2008. The fall includes a reduction in the number of childminders, with almost 400 lost in the last 18 months.

A total of 9,282 childcare providers in March 2017, including nursery staff, is the lowest number on record.

The figures make a mockery of the SNP’s promised ‘revolution’ in childcare.

The findings are part of our summer campaign, For The Many, which this week will focus on the next generation of Scots.

We have so far focused on the economy, unveiling an industrial strategy, the cost of living, which included a five-point plan to tackle working poverty, and the NHS, with the establishment of a workforce commission.

We want to see a flexible childcare system, with a breakfast club in every primary school and a legal guarantee of flexible childcare for working parents.

You can read more about our plans for a Scotland that works for the many, not the few, in our manifesto: http://www.scottishlabour.org.uk/page/-/Manifesto%202017.pdf

Scottish Labour has today called for a ban on zero hours contracts after research revealed that staff earn a third less than workers on the average wage.
The median pay for a zero-hours workers is just £7.49-an-hour compared with £12.17-an-hour for all employees in Scotland, a difference of £4.68.
In Scotland, 467,000 workers earn less than the living wage and 57,000 are on zero-hours contracts.
Labour would ban zero hour contracts and introduce a Real Living Wage of £10-an-hour by 2020.

Shadow Scotland Office Minister, Paul Sweeney said:
“These figures demonstrate the stark reality of life on a zero-hours contract.
“A symbol of the failure of the Tories’ economic plan is the proliferation of zero hour contracts, which has helped fuel the low-wage, low-skill economy that is letting down working people and letting down Britain.
“And the SNP government in Scotland has more power over economic development that any previous Scottish Government, but its record on good quality job creation simply has not been good enough. That's because the Nationalists have simply passed on Tory cuts rather than invest in our economy for growth.
“Our country only succeeds when working people succeed. Labour would ban zero hours contracts – so that every worker gets a guaranteed number of hours each week.
“Our government-in-waiting in Westminster has a manifesto that would build an economy across the UK for the many not the few.”

Scottish Labour has launched the NHS and Social Care Workforce Commission 

The Health and Social Care Workforce Commission has been setup after a decade of SNP mismanagement of our NHS, which has seen a chronic shortage of NHS and social care staff across the sector.

During her time as Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon cut training places for nurses and midwives, the result of which is still being felt with 2,500 nurse and midwife vacancies in the NHS.

Scottish Labour has already published research this week that found that private agency spend has increased six-fold in the last five years and that up to 20 NHS services are under threat explicitly because of staff shortages. This also followed reports earlier this week on the underfunding of GPs with one-in-three practices reporting a vacancy.

The commission is being chaired by Dr Miles Mack, an independent and politically neutral expert and the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

The workforce commission will attempt to address the shortage of staff blighting our health service. It will consider how best to decide the appropriate number of training places for health care workers, attract and retain students through enhanced support and examine how to improve plummeting staff morale in the NHS.

Scottish Labour has already committed to lifting the public sector pay cap and the commission will consider ways to clamp down on the spiralling private agency spending in the health service.

Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson Anas Sarwar MSP said:
“A decade of SNP mismanagement has left our NHS staff overworked, undervalued, under-resourced and underpaid. We have severe shortages of NHS staff including nurses, midwives, GPs and consultants. This is now starting to impact on services and patient care too with a number of services under threat as we simply don’t have the staff to operate them.
“Staff morale is at rock bottom in the health service, with staff reporting there simply aren’t enough of them to do the job properly.
“This is part of the legacy left by Nicola Sturgeon who as Health Secretary slashed the number of training places for nurses and midwives. We now have a Health Secretary, Shona Robison, who is out of her depth and out of ideas. That is why our health service is in desperate need for a meaningful workforce plan.
“Our commission will bring together professionals from across the NHS, representing different sectors, who will together examine the underlying causes for this staffing crisis and importantly develop a strategy and policies to address them.
“I am delighted that we have managed to attract widely respected and experienced individuals who know our NHS so well. They include Dr Miles Mack, who has kindly agreed to chair the commission. As the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGPs) he brings with him a particular expertise on primary care. He will take up the role while remaining independent of the Labour Party and politically neutral.
“Labour has already led the way in defending our NHS and standing up for NHS staff. We are campaigning across the country to protect local services under threat from the SNP and we brought forward the proposal to scrap the pay cap on NHS staff, which was sadly rejected by the SNP in May.
“With our work on the commission we hope to go further and build a clear and ambitious workforce plan that builds staff morale, makes working in the NHS a more attractive career choice, and helps deliver an NHS and social care system fit for the 21st century.”

Here are more details on our Health and Social Care Workforce Commission:

Commissioners
Dr. Miles Mack – Chair, Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGPs)
Theresa Fyffe – Director, Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
June Andrews OBE – Professor of Dementia Studies
Dave Watson – Scottish Organiser, UNISON
John Marr – Secretary, GMB Scottish Ambulance Service Branch
Kim Hartley Kean – Head of Scotland, Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)

Chair of the commission
Dr Miles Mack has agreed to chair our Health and Social Care Workforce Commission. He will bring his knowledge and expertise in particular on primary care to our important work. He will remain politically neutral.

Key areas the commission will be exploring:
– consider how best to decide the appropriate number of training places for health care workers.
– develop a strategy for attracting and retaining NHS and Social Care staff, including considering pay in light of the ongoing pay cay and career pathways
– consider funding models, for example whether direct payments to students will better support healthcare students.
– examine the public sector’s reliance on agency staff.
– analyse the potential impact of demographic changes on future workforce requirements.
– consider what additional frameworks, regulations and legislation could best support the health and social care workforce.

Join the fight for a fairer Scotland in a United Kingdom that works for the many, not the few: https://scotlandjoin.labour.org.uk/