Nine in 10 NHS Trusts breaching pay caps on agency staff

Only 4% of NHS Trusts are fully compliant with government guidelines on the use of agency staff, a healthcare recruiter has claimed.

MSI Group’s research – through Freedom of Information requests – found that mandatory caps on agency staff pay have failed reduce ‘off-framework’ costs, with 79% of NHS Acute and Mental Health Trusts currently hiring outside of NHS approved frameworks. Nine in 10 have been forced to exceed the agency pay caps, which were introduced last year.

Guidelines form health watchdog Monitor stipulate that Trusts can only recruit from agencies that have been awarded a place on one or more NHS approved frameworks. They also specify that Trusts cannot pay locums more than 55% above substantive pay rates.

However, MSI Group’s research found that Trusts are repeatedly having to use a clause which allows them to breach guidelines when patient safety will be compromised and there is no alternative. Over 70,000 shifts have been filled under this clause since the caps were introduced in November 2015.

Unregulated ‘off-framework’ agencies are free to set their own hourly and commission rates and are not subject to the rigorous compliance audits that approved agencies undertake in order to retain their approved status. Of the 288 agencies currently supplying the sector, 45% do not operate within any of the government approved frameworks. Last year, MSI Group research found that 60% of agencies were ‘off-framework’, so this marks an improvement.

Commenting on the findings, Nick Simpson, CEO of MSI Group said: “This research highlights the extent to which NHS Trusts are being forced to break Monitor guidelines in an effort to protect patient safety. The sector had been experiencing positive progress towards sustainable pay rates when initial guidelines – barring off framework expenditure – were introduced in October 2015. However they were not given enough of a chance to prove their worth before new pay caps were hastily rushed in shortly after.”

“Strategic workforce planning is a vital tool for coping with a staffing crisis that looks set to continue for some time to come. Agency staff are a vital asset for managing times of increased need and don’t have to be associated with the crippling costs charged by ‘off-framework’ agencies.

“Any professional working within the healthcare arena will recognise that the staffing crisis is a sizable problem in the NHS. But what’s become increasingly clear is that these issues have been compounded rather than alleviated by new guidelines introduced by Jeremy Hunt.

“MSI will continue to supply temporary staff at sustainable rates across all available frameworks, whilst also working to help Trusts establish a long term solution to a complex problem.”