Migrating nurses and building a recruitment pool through National Bank has removed off-framework agency nurses and reduced further agency spend
National Bank pool of 30 Bank Members actively picking up shifts which is continuing to grow
Off-framework agency usage removed for nursing staff group by January 2024
Using National Bank generated savings of up to £8.00 per hour for registered nurses
The Situation
Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHFT) is a leading provider of community health services in the north-west of England. Going into 2023, BCHFT renewed their focus on reducing off-framework agency usage and needed access to a compliant and cost-effective pool of temporary staff for nursing and midwifery. To support BCHFT in reducing their reliance on agencies, NHS Professionals (NHSP) launched our innovative National Bank solution with the Trust in June 2023.
The Solution
We worked with the Trust to understand their challenges with high off-framework agency usage. It was crucial that we supported the Trust with a plan which took a phased approach to guarantee consistent and safe levels of staffing while we made the changes. Collaborating with stakeholders at BCHFT, we agreed a shared target of eradicating off-framework agency use for registered nursing by 2024 and worked closely with various teams to reduce agency spend overall.
As BCHFT provides services across various community locations, our National Bank recruitment consultants understood the need for establishing collaborative ways of working. This involved open communication across multiple teams and locations.
We created clear, consistent messaging across the Trust to promote joining the National Bank and held drop-in sessions and virtual Q&As to support managers with conversations when encouraging agency staff to migrate.
We collaborated with the Trust to provide agency partners with clear, defined deadlines of when off-framework shifts were going to be turned off and how the shift availability for agencies was set to reduce unless they migrated.
We completed agency migrations across Warrington and Halton Community Services within District Nursing, urgent Treatment Centres and Intermediate Care Bed Based services. Ensuring in-depth reporting, we closely monitored the status of each off-framework agency worker throughout their migration. We collaborated with the relevant department and made sure they were engaged throughout the process. Additionally, we made sure that the Trust were provided with up-to-date data on the progress of all agency migrations.
"Having NHS Professionals on board with their National Bank solution has made a positive impact on reducing our reliance on agency after the pandemic. The National Bank Team have been proactive and supportive throughout and this effort has been a true collaboration. We have appreciated their assistance with the removal of off-framework agency usage. NHS Professionals are now supporting us with the next phase of the agency reduction plan to ensure our patients receive continuous levels of service. We would highly recommend using the National Bank as an additional Bank resource."
Gareth Pugh, Deputy Director of Finance at Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
The Results
The migration to National Bank has reduced the Trust’s agency spend, saving up to £8.00 per hour for registered nurses. This led to 0% off framework agency use recorded by the end of January 2024.
Twelve months post-launch, we have built a pool of 30, of whom 18 are registered nurses, through net new and agency migration including nine agency migrations. Registered and unregistered nurses are actively picking up National Bank shifts across district nursing, urgent treatment centres and intermediate care bed based services which traditionally went out to the agency cascade.
As of January 2024, we have successfully migrated 50% of off-framework agency staff at BCHFT and replaced the other 50% through net new sourcing. Thanks to the dedication of our National Bank team and a focus on growing National Bank resource for BCHFT, fill rates across both registered and unregistered nursing in these departments is consistently increasing month on month.
From the successful launch of migration activity within the nursing staff group, as of March 2024, we expanded into our second phase to focus on reducing agency across the Trusts allied health professionals (AHP), and non-clinical staff groups, to date successfully migrating 40% and 60% of the agency workforce respectively.
"The application process for joining NHS Professionals’ National Bank was easy and I was kept well informed during the process. All parts of the process were well done, once starting to work in the service all staff were professional and supportive. I enjoy all aspects of my role and working through the National Bank has guaranteed me lots of shifts. I would definitely recommend joining to other colleagues."
National Bank Nurse at Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Future Plans
With our National Bank migration projects underway and yielding results, we are now supporting the Trust in an area with high agency use, a specialist department with high demand with an urgent cost reduction plan in place. This will be achieved through targeting ten regular agency workers to migrate across to NHSP by 1st September 2024 without any risk to safe staffing. We are planning various drop-in sessions and supporting both the ward and agency workforce to ensure the process is smooth and timely. This will result in a positive saving initiative for the Trust.