The Background

Sheffield Children’s NHS Trust had carried out good work in gaining grip and control over their agency spending. They had seen some traction in starting to build their Bank of workers.

The Trust already had a Master Vendor arrangement and a technology platform, to support administration for the Bank which had yielded some growth. This had, however, begun to plateau, and the agency spending was starting to increase once more.

With increasing pressure from NHSE/I to reduce agency spending and reliance on agency staffing, the Trust needed to review its options on what further solutions it could put in place to achieve this.

The Challenge

The Trust had a small HR team helping to support the Bank alongside their other duties. This team had managed to yield some growth in the Bank but did not have extra resources to proactively engage with the Bank, or manage the compliance burden of workers who contract with the Trust on a zero-hours basis. The Trust therefore decided to explore options for a Managed Bank arrangement.

The Solution

The Trust reviewed its options and decided to adopt a Managed Staff Bank Solution provided by Agile Workforce Services, procured under the Workforce Alliance Framework.

Agile provided stakeholder support and training sessions to the Trust so they could understand the change in the provision and to support with queries around the new service. They communicated with the current workforce to ensure that all workers were aware of how to engage with the bank and proactively gathered the availability of workers during the implementation period.

The new provision went live in July 2020 and gave Sheffield Children’s NHS Trust the following benefits:

• A dedicated team of Bank coordinators to manage the day-to-day running of the bank
• An agency-to-bank transfer program was launched to migrate workers
• Full marketing plan and materials provided to promote the bank
• Trust-branded app launched
• A proactive approach to fulfilling shifts using phone calls, emails, and WhatsApp
• Comprehensive management information is provided monthly
• Onboarding and offboarding are managed by the Agile team
• Ongoing worker compliance managed by Agile’s team of 30+ compliance officers
• Timesheet and payroll queries are handled by Agile

Key aims

• Reduce the reliance on agency workers
• Increase uptake in Bank shifts from current Bank workers
• Increase the number of active candidates working on the Bank
• Ensure that all candidates working on the Bank have up-to-date compliance documentation
• Have a streamlined process for timesheets, payments, and cross-charging
• Support out-of-hours to work on urgent requirements and deal with queries

Testimonial

“Since outsourcing our internal Bank to Agile Workforce we’ve seen massive growth in the Bank fill; this sits at over 90%. We have little agency spend remaining. Agile has worked closely with our Trust coming on-site and making the move as smooth as possible. The team is efficient. They provide data about our spend and highlight areas for improvement. Agile offers a great service to the Trust and the doctors they manage. We look forward to continuing to work with them and removing the Trust’s need for agency staff.”

Aimee Hatchman - Workforce Planning and Systems Lead - Sheffield Children’s NHS Trust

For more information call 01756 860023 or email the team on info@agile-workforce.co.uk