NHS agency spending caps 1 year on – new regulations introduced

The measures brought in one year ago to cap NHS spending on agency staff have saved £600m but more still needs to be done, according to the regulator, NHS Improvement.

The measures were brought in after the NHS spent over £3 billion on agency staff in 2014/15. Some trusts requested help from the regulator negotiating with agencies and bringing staff back into the NHS.

However, despite monthly spend now being around 20% less than it was at the same time last year, the sector is still spending £250m a month on agencies, according to the NHS Improvement website. In order to further reduce spending, a new raft of measures are being brought in, which include the publication of league tables of agency spend on best and worst performing trusts, and the collection of anonymised information on the 20 highest earning agency staff, per trust, and of long-standing agency staff.

There will be additional reporting to NHS Improvement, including shifts that cost over £120 an hour, and an approval process introduced for the appointment of any interim very senior managers who charge over £750 per day, ‘ensuring trust boards have the right level of oversight of agency spend at their trust’.

Jim Mackey, Chief Executive of NHS Improvement, said: “The NHS simply doesn’t have the money to keep forking out for hugely expensive agency staff. The progress we have made in a single year is really promising and trusts have responded well to the caps. They’ve worked hard to cut these bills and, in many cases, improved the way they manage their workforce. But there’s much more to be done, especially to reduce how much trusts pay for medical agency staff and bringing staff back into the NHS.

“Over a third of the agency bill is spent on medical agency fees, so we need to ensure agencies and doctors do their bit to make sure they’re not overcharging. With hospitals across England struggling with patient demand, trusts need all the support they can get and trying to cash in on the NHS just isn’t on.”

NHS Improvement says that its analysis indicates that if the rate paid for each shift above the wage cap is reduced by just £10 per hour, the sector could save a further £102 million in a year.