NEWS
Hunt’s schedule for cutting agency spend is too ambitious, warn unions By Alistair Kleebauer
@alistairbauer
Unions have cast doubt on the timetable set by the Department of Health for reducing the use of agency nurses. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt last week announced strict new rules on how much struggling trusts can spend on agency staff in a bid to save millions of pounds. In the past three years, spending by the NHS in England on agency staff has risen from £1.8 billion to £3.3 billion in 2014/15.
In response, Mr Hunt pledged to take on ‘rip-off staffing agencies’ by ordering trusts in financial deficit to set a maximum hourly rate for agency nurses and doctors. They will also have their spending on agency staff capped. All NHS trusts will be allowed to use only approved agencies. The controls on agency nurse spending are to be introduced in less than a month, on July 1. Unite head of health Barrie Brown said the timetable is unrealistic and added that Mr Hunt has been ‘slow to
get to grips with the spiralling out-of-control agency budget’. He said: ‘It seems as if it has come as a great surprise. ‘When we had the pay dispute, we had a meeting with Mr Hunt on January 20 and the unions raised the issue then. We said that with better workforce planning and if overtime was made more attractive to nurses, they could use the money that goes on agency staff on the NHS workforce.’ Unison head of nursing Gail Adams said: ‘Giving trusts less than a month to do this is extremely short-sighted and it places patient care at serious risk.
Workforce planning
‘HELLO TRUST, MY NAME IS DR GRANGER’ Healthcare campaigner and founder of the #hellomynameis campaign Kate Granger has welcomed a London trust’s support for the initiative. Yellow name badges are being introduced at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust this summer. The campaign urges NHS staff to introduce themselves properly to patients and visitors. Dr Granger (pictured fourth from right), a hospital doctor who has terminal cancer, visited the trust last week to talk about compassion and building relationships in health care.
Staff at the trust have pledged to ensure their yellow name badges are always visible to patients and to treat patients as if they were a member of their own family. Welcoming the trust’s support, Dr Granger said: ‘Health workers can make a real difference to their patient’s experience of receiving care by introducing themselves properly.’ Guy’s and St Thomas’ chief nurse and director of patient experience Dame Eileen Sills, who met Dr Granger with colleagues, said it was a ‘fantastic initiative’.
‘I can fully see the need to look at agency spend, but the problem is that we just do not have sufficient numbers of nurses and this is because there has not been proper workforce planning,’ Ms Adams added. Regulators Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) will have a role in setting the level of the caps and the system will be rolled out to clinical, medical, management and administrative staff by the autumn. Monitor chief executive David Bennett wrote to the chairs and chief executives of foundation trusts to say that there will be a cap on the percentage of staff that can be employed on an agency basis. The TDA is deciding on how it will implement the rules. Tom Hadley, director of policy at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, which is the professional body for the recruitment industry in the UK, said ‘The language and tone from Jeremy Hunt is outrageous.’ See news analysis page 12
8 june 10 :: vol 29 noRCNi.com 41 :: 2015by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 19, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING STANDARD Downloaded from other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Hunt’s schedule for cutting agency spend is too ambitious, warn unions By Alistair Kleebauer
@alistairbauer
Unions have cast doubt on the timetable set by the Department of Health for reducing the use of agency nurses. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt last week announced strict new rules on how much struggling trusts can spend on agency staff in a bid to save millions of pounds. In the past three years, spending by the NHS in England on agency staff has risen from £1.8 billion to £3.3 billion in 2014/15.
In response, Mr Hunt pledged to take on ‘rip-off staffing agencies’ by ordering trusts in financial deficit to set a maximum hourly rate for agency nurses and doctors. They will also have their spending on agency staff capped. All NHS trusts will be allowed to use only approved agencies. The controls on agency nurse spending are to be introduced in less than a month, on July 1. Unite head of health Barrie Brown said the timetable is unrealistic and added that Mr Hunt has been ‘slow to
get to grips with the spiralling out-of-control agency budget’. He said: ‘It seems as if it has come as a great surprise. ‘When we had the pay dispute, we had a meeting with Mr Hunt on January 20 and the unions raised the issue then. We said that with better workforce planning and if overtime was made more attractive to nurses, they could use the money that goes on agency staff on the NHS workforce.’ Unison head of nursing Gail Adams said: ‘Giving trusts less than a month to do this is extremely short-sighted and it places patient care at serious risk.
Workforce planning
‘HELLO TRUST, MY NAME IS DR GRANGER’ Healthcare campaigner and founder of the #hellomynameis campaign Kate Granger has welcomed a London trust’s support for the initiative. Yellow name badges are being introduced at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust this summer. The campaign urges NHS staff to introduce themselves properly to patients and visitors. Dr Granger (pictured fourth from right), a hospital doctor who has terminal cancer, visited the trust last week to talk about compassion and building relationships in health care.
Staff at the trust have pledged to ensure their yellow name badges are always visible to patients and to treat patients as if they were a member of their own family. Welcoming the trust’s support, Dr Granger said: ‘Health workers can make a real difference to their patient’s experience of receiving care by introducing themselves properly.’ Guy’s and St Thomas’ chief nurse and director of patient experience Dame Eileen Sills, who met Dr Granger with colleagues, said it was a ‘fantastic initiative’.
‘I can fully see the need to look at agency spend, but the problem is that we just do not have sufficient numbers of nurses and this is because there has not been proper workforce planning,’ Ms Adams added. Regulators Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) will have a role in setting the level of the caps and the system will be rolled out to clinical, medical, management and administrative staff by the autumn. Monitor chief executive David Bennett wrote to the chairs and chief executives of foundation trusts to say that there will be a cap on the percentage of staff that can be employed on an agency basis. The TDA is deciding on how it will implement the rules. Tom Hadley, director of policy at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, which is the professional body for the recruitment industry in the UK, said ‘The language and tone from Jeremy Hunt is outrageous.’ See news analysis page 12
8 june 10 :: vol 29 noRCNi.com 41 :: 2015by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 19, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING STANDARD Downloaded from other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
