Think your job is secure by working with an off-framework agency? The news below might give you some other ideas. (Note – Nursing Personnel is a framework agency, so the information below does not apply to it)

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt recently announced (read here») new measures to tackle spending on agencies in the NHS, with the ultimate aim of reducing the £3.3bn agency staff bill.

These will include putting an end to the use of off-framework agencies, capping agency spending for those trusts in financial difficulty and setting a maximum hourly rate for agency staff. Management consultants have also been targeted by the Health Secretary in these new measures, with contracts over £50,000 needing official approval.

Jeremy Hunt said: “Expensive staffing agencies are quite simply ripping off the NHS. It’s outrageous that taxpayers are being taken for a ride by companies charging up to £3,500 a shift for a doctor. The NHS is bigger than all of these companies, so we’ll use that bargaining power to drive down rates and beat them at their own game.”

Read the full article: Clampdown on staffing agencies charging NHS extortionate rates »

File:Jeremy Hunt visiting the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health, 700 Second St, Washington, USA-3June2013.jpg, https://goo.gl/uN7W8J, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic