Occupational therapy Workforce Strategy action plan
This is a reduced version of the Workforce Strategy action plan – Scotland.
Developing our action plan has been a team effort. We’d like to thank the member volunteers in our Workforce Strategy Scotland Advisory Group who’ve helped to shape it.
If you want to know more about our Workforce Strategy action plan, or our policy and campaigning work in Scotland, please contact katie.macgregor@rcot.co.uk
The challenges facing the occupational therapy workforce in Scotland
- Growing demand and increasing pressure: There’s a growing demand for occupational therapy services in Scotland, due to an ageing population and the increasing prevalence of long-term health conditions.
- Recruitment challenges. The current workforce is under significant pressure, with staff shortages and retention issues impacting the profession's capacity to provide essential services.
- Limited data to inform workforce and service planning. Gathering national data on the occupational therapy workforce is challenging. For example, there is no single source for understanding the numbers and make-up of the local authority occupational therapy workforce.
- Lack of financial sustainability. Healthcare delivery in Scotland is not sustainable in the long term. Reduced budgets lead to service cuts, rising demand outpacing funding and limited investment in new facilities.
- Limited routes into the profession. The lack of part-time programmes, no apprenticeship offer and limited student financial support means that occupational therapy can be inaccessible for many.
- Lack of parity for workforce career development: In the NHS, many leadership opportunities are open to nurses but not to AHPs. There are further challenges around the lack of clinical specialists and advanced practice roles. This restricts career progression for many to management roles, limiting clinical advancement.
- Building the evidence base. Funding remains a barrier for occupational therapists to undertake research. As well as funding, time and ability to scale and spread innovation within the NHS and social care services remains a huge obstacle.
- Local authority and social care data: Analysing the workforce within local authority and social care teams is challenging as this data is not collected at a national level.
What is guiding health and social care policy in Scotland?
Our Workforce Vision
Our vision is for an expanded occupational therapy workforce in Scotland – positioned to have maximum impact in improving people’s health and quality of life.
By 2035, we will have an occupational therapy workforce that is:
Confident and skilled in championing inclusion and advocating for occupational
justice, focusing on the right of every person to have the choice and opportunity
to engage in a diverse range of activities and roles.
Based primarily within communities, working closely with local populations to meet their health and care needs and ensuring that services are accessible to everyone.
Positioned to focus on prevention and early interventions, minimising the need
for crisis interventions and dependency on care services.
Putting occupations at the forefront of their practice, empowering people to
do the occupations that they value, manage their health and care needs and
contribute to society.
Desired actions and outcomes for Scotland
Through our influencing work and collaborations, we will work with occupational therapy leaders, external stakeholders and decision-makers to:
- Establish an apprenticeship programme and alternative routes into the profession.
This would help to recognise the diversity of the local population and lead to more
inclusive approaches to academic, research and career development opportunities. - Ensure continued high-quality and effective education for learners. This should include
supporting our health boards and health and social care partnerships, to ensure they
can provide ongoing high-quality placements. We also want to see more placements in
emerging areas, such as research and third sector partners. - Provide greater financial support for our learners equal to other healthcare profession
learners such as nursing and paramedicine, who both receive a bursary. - Highlight the value and impact of occupational therapy by supporting and promoting
research and innovation. We’ll share learning to inspire local change. - Optimise occupational therapy in primary and secondary prevention to address health
inequalities by capturing service improvement and real-world evidence data on the
impact of occupational therapists working in communities. This will help keep people
in work and rely less on acute hospital services. - Better understand the barriers to leadership, management and career progression
opportunities within our local authorities. We will then work with members and
stakeholders to break them down and ensure equal opportunity for our members. - Improve the geographical distribution of the occupational therapy workforce,
to tackle regional imbalances and ensure every citizen who needs it has timely access
to the life-changing power of occupational therapy. - Campaign for strategies to retain the current occupational therapy workforce in
Scotland, including improved access to leadership, research and innovation opportunities. - Invest and upskill our occupational therapy support workforce, who play a vital role
in providing care and support. - Get on par with other registered healthcare professionals across health and social care
in career development, pay and terms and conditions.
Workforce Strategy action plan – Scotland
We’ve based our plan on the following principles laid out in our Workforce Strategy.
This set out our four workforce priorities. These are:
• optimising occupational therapy
• demonstrating value and impact
• retention and career development
• effective workforce planning.
Below is a reduced version of the Workforce Strategy action plan – Scotland. To find definitions or read about how we’ll measure success, please download the full version.
Monitoring and evaluation
We’ll continuously monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Workforce Strategy.
This will involve collecting data on a range of indicators, including the number of occupational therapists in Scotland, the geographical distribution of the occupational therapy workforce, and the skills and knowledge of the occupational therapy workforce.
Conclusion
Our action plan represents a bold and comprehensive vision for the future of occupational therapy in Scotland. It aims to expand the workforce and ensure that occupational therapy practitioners are well distributed, highly skilled and empowered to provide holistic, person-centred care across all communities.
By fostering collaboration with employers, educators, policymakers and key stakeholders, we can create an environment where occupational therapists thrive – helping to meet the evolving needs of the population and improving health outcomes. Together, we are building a sustainable, innovative and resilient occupational therapy workforce that is fit for the future.
We are pleased to launch our Workforce Strategy action plan for Scotland and look forward to working with our members, stakeholders and policymakers to deliver this action plan. Together, we can build a future where occupational therapy practitioners are empowered to continue to make a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of our communities in Scotland.