Developing a TempRE locum workforce

NHS Shetland is developing an agency direct employed temporary workforce across a varied and challenging geographic area, saving the healthcare service £175,488 in the first eight months.

Saving the healthcare service £310,105 through the TempRE workforce service

NHS Shetland is developing an agency direct employed temporary workforce across a varied and challenging geographic area, saving the healthcare service £175,488 in the first eight months. As Liaison Workforce’s first TempRE client in Scotland, NHS Shetland’s six-month pilot of the TempRE workforce service for acute medical acted as proof of concept for Scottish health boards.

Scope and Findings

NHS Shetland Health Board is based in the North East of Scotland and delivers health care to over 23,000 people across a large geographical region and faced multiple challenges:

  • Needed to develop a temporary workforce engagement platform to widen the pool of locums and achieve greater visibility and control.
  • Locum workers were not familiar with dispersed health service structure.
  • Health Board was let down by alternative supplier who was unprepared for the geographical challenges in Shetland and had increased its’ fees outside of the scope of the tender.

Liaison Workforce’s Service Involved:

  • Driving Productivity, Innovation and Compliance.
  • Education and Training: End user training sessions/MI Reporting Portal – monitoring staff expenditure and usage.
  • Conversion Success: 100% conversion rate through dialogue and education with locums and suppliers.
  • Agency Arrangements: Single contract to manage all agencies. Reporting tools supported price and supplier controls and rate reductions.
  • Financial Controls: Aligned system settings to the NHS Shetland’s establishment controls to accurately report on spend and missed savings.
  • Compliance: Making sure that NHS Shetland complied with all applicable Scottish regulations and compliance requirements, covering National Services Scotland Framework, Employment Law and treatment of VAT.

Next Steps

We will be…

Continuing to assist the health board in growingits own bank.

Ultimately, we need to be engaging the workforce by using better information and systems to drive down costs and seek further opportunities for savings via efficiencies and streamlining. Given the size and spread of our workforce pool, TempRE should allow us much greater self-sufficiency.

Karl Williamson

Head of Finance, NHS Shetland

Get in Touch

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Business:

NHS Shetland

Challenge

Driving productivity, innovation and compliance

Solutions

TempRE