Taking the Temperature on Temporary Staffing

Against a backdrop of the pandemic, staff shortages, strikes and waiting lists, the NHS is faced with a multitude of workforce challenges, whilst managing the ongoing reliance and spiralling cost of temporary staff.

Liaison Workforce has compared the hourly rates paid for temporary medical workers and quantified the relative savings that trusts are achieving through the bank model. The report is based on booking data from more than a quarter of trusts in England, representing over 3.5m hours, in our first Taking the Temperature report since before the pandemic.

The data shows that significant savings can be made with the increased use of banks, resulting in trusts achieving better value for money and providing better continuity of care for patients. Further savings can also be realised by moving long-term agency workers to their substantive workforce.

Based on our analysis, trusts across England could save up to £68m per year by switching agency shifts to bank shifts.