Ensuring our members have optimum, fair and current terms and conditions are key aspects of our work and core to the day-to-day role of our team in Scotland. But what are the “Once for Scotland” Workforce Policies and what do they mean for you?

Knowing what policies exist and how they are set out enables staff to be clear about the core expectations of their role as employees and what they should expect from their employer to best support them to fulfil their role.

We all experience a variety of work challenges and personal circumstances that can impact on our experience at work. Knowing the policies and what they broadly offer places you in the best position to effectively raise concerns, utilise support and engage fairly and fully with processes that might feel overwhelming or confusing.

Scotland has a vast array of national policies. Most of our members work within the remit of Agenda for Change (AfC) terms and conditions (country-specific) that form the fundamental part of their contract of employment. However, there are several aspects of the employment contract that fall outside of this, such as job descriptions and workforce policies, that are specific to each employer.

RCM Scotland has been working hard to contribute to the structures and process of developing this raft of guidelines to ensure our members have the best possible policies when at work, regardless of where they work in NHSScotland.

In Scotland, NHS Boards have historically developed their workforce policies through utilising the Partnership Information Network (PIN) policies that were developed nationally in partnership with NHSScotland employers, trade unions/professional organisations and the Scottish Government. They set a minimum standard which Boards’ local employment policies either had to meet or exceed. The PIN policies and supporting documents together formed the standard for workforce policies that applied to all NHSScotland employees.

While this approach aimed to achieve a minimum standard, it still gave rise to a level of inconsistency and variation across employers, meaning that staff in NHSScotland experienced contractual variation across the key areas. This impacted their day-to-day work, such as management of attendance and capability processes.

The “Once for Scotland” Workforce Policies were first established in 2018 and were designed to refresh the existing PIN policies to deliver a single, standardised suite of policies and supporting documents. The aim was to make them accessible, simplified and person-centred. Most importantly, these would be the definitive policies that all NHS Boards in Scotland would use, no matter where you work.

As a key member of the Scottish Workforce and Governance Committee on behalf of RCM members, I became a core member of the policy development group for phase one. An NHSScotland workforce policies investigation process was also developed to outline the investigation process and support decision-making for NHSScotland workforce policy cases.

Since 2020, the suite of policies has grown to 18, with further additions to the work-life balance categories. All current policies are easily accessible and supporting documents can be found here.

We are now looking at the next phase of the programme, as we include policies on EDI, gender-based violence, fixed term contracts and so on. The phase also includes guides on racism, reasonable adjustments, sexual harassment and transitioning.

These policies and guides are aligned with much of our work around promoting equality and diversity and reducing discrimination. We responded to the consultation on behalf of our members earlier this year and the policies have now been approved by the Scottish Workforce and Governance Committee and entered a period of ‘soft launch’.

Providing each of these stages progresses as planned, the newly refreshed policies will go live for staff and managers on the NHSScotland Workforce Policies website in the early 2025.

It has been rewarding to work on these policies and to ensure we are a key contributor to them so we can ensure we get the best possible terms for our members. We hope that by engaging fully in the development of this work, we have ensured our members have the best, fairest and most comprehensive access to a wide range of policies that promote positive and compassionate experiences at work.