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Lancashire Care ranked Top
Performer in recent sample around reducing agency spend
A recent sample of North West Trust's
ranked Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust as the top performer in reducing the
amount being spent on clinical agencies. The Temporary Staffing Department is a
large team with both clinical and admin workers registered who work in various
placements within their local areas. The team also provides bank workers to NHS
facilities outside of the Trust. The Trust was ranked the top performer for
reducing clinical agency spend by providing a temporary staffing service seven
days a week.
A number of years ago the Trust won the contract for community services in
Central and Pennine Lancashire. This contract almost doubled Trust's workforce
and put an increasing demand on the staff bank as the organisations transferring
over did not have viable staff banks and relied heavily on agency use, the
increase in workforce then resulted in a doubling on agency spend. To address
this The Temporary Staffing began a review of the service in order to identify
the changes needed to increase the bank fill rate and reduce agency usage.
As part of the review the department recruited extra staff to the team who
focused on advertising, interviewing, recruiting and providing a controlled
place for bookings. The service is provided seven days a week until 10pm which
eliminates the need for managers to contact external agencies. The department
has also improved bank work engagement by introducing drop in support sessions
and is due to launch a site for workers to access information. Any vacant shifts
at the Trust can now be notified to bank workers by text, email or can be
accessed online on smart phones and tablets.
This year the Trust has managed to reduce clinical agency spend to 17% since the
38% back in 2013.
Wendy Simpson, Temporary Staffing Manager at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation
Trust said:- "Prior to this piece of work, The Temporary Staffing Bank was
fragmented and new contract wins meant that our workforce increased, putting a
high demand on agency usage. In order to address the issue, the team worked
extremely hard to ensure that all functions were providing by 1 team, allowing
for greater control of advertising and central control of agency usage. This has
proved to be successful as demonstrated by the increase in the number of shifts
filled with bank workers and reduction in agency usage.
Being part of our Temporary Staffing Bank means that people can work flexibly
around their personal lives, it provides variety in the location of work and
means people are able to choose what shifts they want to work and when. Not only
do people gain NHS experience, but working on the bank can lead to jobs with
longer term contracts. Meaning when a permanent opportunity opens up, bank staff
are perfectly placed to fill the role. By providing a Temporary Staffing Bank we
are able to actively recruit people of all ages, background and levels of
experience. This supports us to understand the different needs of our patients
and enables us to provide the highest quality of care and treatment!"
The Team is actively building on the success to date and is now looking continue
this work and look at addressing the medical agency spend by increasing the size
of the medical staffing bank. The Trust also plans to look at collaborating with
neighbouring Trust's top streamline agency bookings.
For more information about the Temporary Staffing Department please
visit the Trist's
website.
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