NHS Trusts may be prohibited from using agency workers in certain roles, under the tough reforms announced by the Department of Health and Social Care last week.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, announced this week that his department would launch plans to reduce NHS reliance on temporary workers. These workers are estimated to be costing the NHS PS3 billion a year.
NHS trusts may be prohibited from hiring temporary entry-level employees in bands 2 and 3 such as domestic support workers and healthcare assistants under joint plans between NHS England and the government.
Plans will be presented in a consultation that will also examine proposals to prevent NHS staff from resigning then re-offering services through recruitment agencies.
The DHSC claimed recruitment agencies charged NHS trusts as much as PS2,000 per nursing shift. There are currently 113,000 vacancies in the health service.
Streeting stated: “For far too long, desperate hospitals were forced to spend eye-watering amounts of money on temporary workers, costing taxpayers billions and forcing experienced NHS staff to leave. We won’t let the NHS be ripped off any longer.
“I’m determined to ensure that the money spent is used wisely and benefits patients.” These changes may help to keep NHS staff and save significant amounts of money that can be re-invested in frontline services.
The plans to limit the use of agency workers are part of a reform package aimed at changing the health service. This includes new league tables for NHS providers, which will help to attract the best talent in the most difficult areas.
Neil Carberry said that agency staff was being used to “blame” inefficient procurement procedures.
He said that any ban on agency workers would not solve NHS retention and recruitment issues.
He said: “There’s no doubt the NHS needs to reform in order to be fit for purpose. It is not just about money when it comes to improving standards of care and efficiency.
“Getting it right will reduce waiting lists, improve the lives of people and support the economy. As any doctor would tell the Secretary, the best way to fix a problem is with the right diagnosis. Streeting is wrong when it comes staff issues.
Carberry said: “Temporary staff costs in the NHS are primarily the wages and compliance cost of staff.” This is why agency staffing in banks is not cheaper, and the Secretary of state discovered that costs did not go down after switching to overtime.
He said that NHS trusts should invest in talent planning for the long term, rather than relying solely on emergency care coverage.
No ban will fix this. The NHS must address the needs of the staff who want to work differently and may have been demoralised.
We have always stated that the Department of Health puts workforce first by bringing together unions, staffing partner and trusts to create an approach which attracts and retains strong substantive staff. This is complemented with a stable approach and good value to temporary staffing.
The REC wrote to the chief executive officer of NHS England to ask that it work with all stakeholders to resolve staffing issues. The letter claims that the expenditure on nursing banks almost tripled between 2016 and 2017 due to “consistent failure to engage”.
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