Research carried out by NIACE and NRDC has shown that the educational levels and qualifications of health sector staff, including the NHS, reflect that of the general population.
The majority of health sector staff are graduates, but a third will not have attained a Level 2 in either numeracy or literacy.
Of the 25% of workforce who do not have a degree, approximately one quarter will not have attained Level 2 in literacy and three quarters will not have attained Level 2 in numeracy.
One example of this is a nurse with gaps in numeracy skill levels that could potentially result in a drug calculation error.
NHS Education for Scotland has begun to undertake work in support of the enhancement of numeracy skills amongst the Scottish health care workforce.
There is some debate about whether all jobs within the NHS require a Level 2 ability in literacy. This is because most NHS publications are written at a high literacy level - even health and safety posters require Level 2 reading skills.
Skills for Health has undertaken some mapping of NHS KSF post outlines to the national standards for literacy and numeracy.
