Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 – how to stay compliant using DepenSys

The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 came into effect on 1st April 2024, and the Act is intended to provide safe and high-quality services as well as to ensure the best care outcomes for people using services by the efficient and effective allocation of staff. 

Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 – what's included? 

Part 3 of the Act, entitled Staffing in Care Services, details that “Any person who provides a care service must ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in care services in such numbers as are appropriate for- 

1. The health, wellbeing and safety of service users, 
2. The provision of safe and high-quality care, and 
3. In so far as it affects either of those matters, the wellbeing of staff.”   

It also says that “In determining what constitutes appropriate numbers for the purposes of subsection 1 (described above), regard is to be had to- 

1. The nature of the care service, 
2. The size of the care service, 
3. The aims and objectives of the care service, 
4. The number of service users, and 
5. The needs of service users.” 

According to the Care Inspectorate, a staffing method must include the use of staffing level tools designed to provide:   

• Quantitative information relating to workload based on people’s needs, and 
• Quantitative or qualitive information relating to professional judgement 

While these two factors are non-negotiable for any staffing method used by care homes, there are other factors that it may include, but are not obligatory, such as: 

• Risk management procedures, 
• Staffing levels 
• Environment 
• Assessment of quality 
• People’s needs and views 
• Healthcare professionals 
• Staff feedback 
• Comments from relatives and carers 
• New guidance 

How Depensys will ensure you stay compliant with the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 

Because the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act requires care homes to ensure that the right number of staff are available to provide good care outcomes for residents, DepenSys is tailor-made to help you stay compliant with the new Act.  

DepenSys is a dependency tool that calculates how many staff are required to provide a good level of care, and as well as this it gives care settings an accurate ‘skill mix’ that is required in order to maximise the allocation of resources when it comes to staffing. In this way, DepenSys ensures that staff time and energy is being used in the most impactful and efficient way possible, and it also tracks the resident journey and helps care home managers make informed, data-led decisions on staffing.  

Practical examples of how DepenSys will help with compliance to the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 

Required hours vs actual hours 

• Information regarding hours required for a good level of care against hours that are available based on current staffing is calculated based on the needs of each individual resident.  

Required skilled hours vs actual skilled hours 

• Like the overall information regarding the hours required, DepenSys will also calculate the number of skilled hours available based on information inputted on the different skill mix of staff and the shifts allocated to them.  

Real-time data 

• DepenSys will give you a real-time snapshot of the current staffing based on the data given on residents and staff and will change in real-time based on the changing dependency of residents, incoming or departing residents, or the changing number of staff available. 

Categorising resident needs 

• Care home managers can use their professional judgement to determine and score the level to which residents will require care in a number of different categories. What sets DepenSys apart from any other dependency and staffing tool of modal, however, is that it uses the real-time data of resident needs to calculate the staffing requirements for care homes. But this doesn’t mean it is a static ‘one plus one equals two’ calculation; rather, the algorithm will alter the required hours based on how each individual category interacts with another. For example, if the Bed Rest/Living in Bed category is set to 1 rather than 0 for a resident, this will automatically alter the mobility needs and automatically set them to the highest setting of 3, because noting that a resident is living in bed will by default result in the highest level of mobility needs. This automation not only acts as an efficient way of ensuring synergy in the overall picture of needs, but it acts as a backstop to ensure errors are not made in the process of assigning care hours to residents. 

These are just some of the ways in which DepenSys will help you to stay compliant with the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 before it comes into effect on April 1st.  

Read more here on everything you need to know about DepenSys to find out more about how DepenSys can transform your staffing. 

Or if you want to learn more about how DepenSys can help you stay compliant with the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019, you can click here to book a demo.