REC Health & Social Care - Fight Our Corner of Flexible Staffing

By Policy Advisor Vicky O’Brien

We are continuing to fight our corner in making the case for flexible staffing within the NHS and showcasing the crucial role of specialist recruitment agencies. Our latest correspondence with the Health Minister, Dr Daniel Poulter took forward a number of key industry messages.

Whilst fully recognising the need to address instances of bad practice and to work constructively with procurement departments, our core message is that well managed temporary and locum staffing can be key a component of a cost-effective resourcing model. Our ongoing work to raise standards within our sector – in particular, through our Code of Practice, complaints line, audits and industry qualifications – is key to ensuring that specialist healthcare agencies are seen as genuine partners in the delivery of first class patient care.

In our latest ‘missive’ to the Minister, we argue that side-lining agencies risks creating a void that alternatives such as staff banks are unlikely to fully cover. Specialist recruitment agencies provide a 24/7 service to the NHS, ensuring suitably skilled and properly vetted staff are placed into front line roles, often at extremely short notice. Many agency workers are former or current direct employees of the NHS and have gained invaluable experience working in a number of care settings. Yet despite the crucial role agency workers have played ensuring safe staffing levels, they continue to be treated as second-class citizens within the NHS. This is something REC Health & Social Care will continue to challenge.

The Department of Health’s “Better Procurement, Better Value, Better Care” report that was published last summer recognised the need for a new approach to supplier engagement; that recruitment agencies and their clients should “jointly take waste out of the system and smooth the pathway for innovation”. This is a positive message that we are keen to build. However, nurturing a flexible and sustainable NHS workforce is going to require a shift from simply supplier engagement to genuine collaboration. As government continues to review NHS workforce and supply chain strategy, we must ensure that our voice remains at the forefront of the debate.
An immediate priority that is within our control is to ramp up our professional standards activities. As part of this, we are looking for all members of REC Health & Social Care member to pass their REC Compliance Test over the coming months. This will create a positive message for individual agencies as well as for the sector as a whole and will inform our ongoing dialogue with government and the NHS.

For more details on the REC's compliance test, click here.