Want a £3billion Cost, or a £3billion investment; it’s up to you

Awaiting the award decision of the framework is never an easy time for a Healthcare specialist recruiter so it’s with no small sense of relief that we can confirm we are part of the new non-clinical recruitment framework RM6277.

At a time when business costs, as well as personal cost of living, are rising it is a tricky path to get one’s proposition right when a framework is so tilted towards price, but I am delighted to say that we have worked our costing in a way that will mean we dilute our quality not a jot. Interim Professionals will never be about bums on seats, or generating profit for our shareholders - quality has always been the overriding factor for us and will continue to be.

There is a great deal of attention in both the general media as well as within Healthcare specific channels regarding the spend on temporary, locum or interim resource and in my 25 years of Healthcare Recruitment I don’t think a single one has tried to reflect a positive version or indeed a balanced reflection of this market. Perhaps no surprise then that the NHS has introduced numerous policies to restrict the use & spend on agency staff. I don’t advocate for open season on engaging external interim staff and indeed one has to acknowledge how far the NHS has come to control spending in this way, but I want to take this opportunity to turn this narrative on its head and encourage people to think a little differently.

The NHS has spent somewhere in the region of £3 billion on agency staff each calendar year, not withstanding these significant policies & pressures to spend less. But instead of thinking of that as a cost or burden on finances to be stamped out no matter what the collateral damage, wouldn’t it be better to think in terms of a resource and investment in which to maximise the return? If, for as long as anyone can remember, the NHS has been somewhat reliant on this cohort of workforce then it’s fair to say it is a service the NHS needs to be functional. So, if we establish you need this service, and need these people, then why not work to achieve the best out of it? And it’s no surprise the Healthcare sector needs these people; they’re great! They deliver huge value, bring skillsets you might not have in-house, have experience of your exact issue/challenge and can see the pitfalls before you get to them and ensure you navigate safely around them, they can be the totem for difficult change and take the focus away from you if delivering difficult change, they can be a fresh pair of eyes, an independent voice, and extra resource & pair of hands when its busy, they finish when the need has passed, they don’t require redundancy pay-offs, consultations or negotiations with unions, they don’t bring with them politics or internal bias and if you use the right agency they come with recommendations and an understanding of how to deploy them best.

So, I champion a way of thought that accepts the need to control costs but prioritises the need to think more wisely about how to get best value out of this expenditure, to allow it to flourish, to positively support this cohort of healthcare workers so that they deliver a greater return than the finance spent on them. I would welcome any opportunity to talk about how this can be achieved (in 25 years I’ve never been asked once by an NHS organisation as to how they can improve how they hire or use interim staff!)

We at Interim Professionals are committed to ensuring the NHS and wider Healthcare sector gets value from its use of interim resource, that each £ spent is wisely invested and gets the best possible return. We aim to provide the candidates who make the difference, make change happen, bring value to your organisation and a return on investment and we look forward to working with you all for another 4 years (at least!).