NHS Education for Scotland has announced a ‘digital first’ approach to training health and social care workers across the country.
The organisation – responsible for delivering education and skills to NHS workers in Scotland – will move to ‘remote learning where possible’ as part of a new net zero drive.
It plans to create a ‘travel hierarchy’ and aims to ‘eliminate needless travel’, by encouraging more courses and events to be hosted online.
‘While we understand that, especially in health and social care settings, in-person learning will always be required for certain areas and specific skills, our aim is to move to a digital model outwith these exceptions,’ it said in its new Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2024-2027, published today.
The public sector body will also undertake a rationalisation process for its datacentres and server rooms.
And it will look to scope out future datacentre requirements, to ensure that any usage ‘considers and reflects sustainability requirements in support of significantly reducing our environmental impact’.
It acknowledges that it will also have to upgrade its digital infrastructure to enable more staff working and learning to be carried out online, and using cloud-based platforms where required. All of which works towards supporting its ‘green credentials.’
The strategy, spanning 11 pages, outlines NES activities aimed at reducing its own direct emissions, as well as embedding climate emergency and sustainability practices within education and training for the health and social care workforce.
Karen Reid, chief executive, NES said: “I am pleased to introduce this strategy and accompanying action plan which defines ways that NES will help mitigate the impact of climate change across all aspects of our work.
“NES has a key role to play in raising and influencing awareness and understanding of the climate emergency. How we embed the principles of sustainability and sustainable care into our education, training and workforce development programmes for health and social care will help us progress towards achieving our climate goals.
“Net zero initiatives are threaded throughout work such as training in relation to use of nitrous oxide in dental sedation Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme Practice Support Manual supports the NHS Scotland aim of zero emissions of nitrous oxide by 2027.
“Our climate emergency response aligns with our broader NES Corporate Strategy with an emphasis on providing digital innovation and infrastructure to sustainably support that workforce.”
