Refining services and strengthening culture to better support the healthcare flexible workforce and deliver better patient care

The NHSP Viewpoint

 

Flexible working remains a vital part of how the NHS operates efficiently. With ever-evolving workforce demand and shifting priorities, understanding the experiences of healthcare professionals working flexibly is critical to delivering safe, high-quality patient care.

To better understand the experience of the flexible worker, NHSP conducts a regular Bank Member survey. The findings provide:

• A deeper understanding into how flexible work affects wellbeing, patient safety and quality of care.
• Insight into the motivations for flexible working and the lived experiences of flexible workers.
• A comprehensive view of flexible working in the NHS today, highlighting what works well and where challenges remain.
• Opportunities for quality improvement.

The results show how NHSP can continue to support Bank Members to thrive in a flexible working environment.

Our most recent survey gathered responses from over 6,000 clinical and non-clinical workers. A clear theme emerged: while Bank Members consistently value the autonomy and flexibility that bank work provides, structural and cultural challenges can affect wellbeing, access to development and retention.

As the NHS moves towards more sustainable, flexible workforce models, addressing these challenges is critical to both retention and service quality and patient care.

 

Making flexible work simpler

NHSP works closely with the NHS at every level to design and deliver flexible staffing solutions that put patient care first, while supporting a sustainable workforce. From national policy alignment to day-to-day collaboration with Trusts, our focus is on delivering strategic, long-term solutions. This includes ensuring flexible roles are cost-effective, clearly communicated, easy to access and aligned with the needs of both healthcare professionals and the NHS. NHSP delivers this through experienced leadership, a skilled clinical governance team and defined pathways for risk management, assurance and learning.

Our work supports the government’s 10-Year Health Plan by helping grow and stabilise the workforce, enabling Trusts to respond to demand, while maintaining continuity, safety and quality of care. By simplifying flexible work, NHSP helps healthcare professionals balance their personal needs with meaningful NHS careers, while supporting Trusts to deploy the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

We continue to invest in integrated, evolving technology platforms to increase efficiency, reduce administration, improve shift fill rates in line with demand, and lower costs for the NHS. In addition, we support our client Trusts to reduce agency spend, a founding principle of NHSP. By streamlining systems and acting on healthcare professionals’ feedback, we simplify the flexible working experience and enable healthcare professionals to focus on what matters most: delivering care to patients.

 

Making flexible work more inclusive

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) sits at the heart of our business and is a core leadership priority, ensuring inclusion is championed at leadership level and embedded throughout our organisation. Our EDI approach, both for our corporate team and our Bank Members is guided by three core aims:

• Being an inclusive recruiter of choice that reflects the diversity of our society.
• Maintaining a safe, supportive environment in which all colleagues can thrive.
• Embedding EDI principles across all areas of the organisation.

This can also be seen within our commitment to Staff Support Networks, including DoMAiN (Disability, Mental Health, Allyship and Neuro Inclusion), Race Equality, LGBTQ+ and Multi-Faith networks. These supportive groups play an active role in awareness, engagement and celebrating key events, such as Leeds Pride, Disability Awareness Month and Black History Month.

Listening to our people, from Bank Members to staff, is fundamental to NHSP’s continuous improvement.  We gather regular feedback and insights to help us refine our services and strengthen our culture to better support Bank Members. In recognition of this approach, NHSP was named one of The Sunday Times’ Best Places to Work in the UK in May 2025.

 

Making flexible work more safe, fair and transparent

NHSP works closely with client Trusts to promote the principles of a ‘Just Culture’. This means advocating for fair, balanced and proportionate responses focused on learning and system improvement. By embedding just and fair processes, we create an environment where flexible workers feel supported and confident, strengthening trust and psychological safety for Bank Members.

Over the past year, all our practices have become increasingly data-led, with greater transparency around professional concerns, shared learning and incident response. This ensures issues are addressed consistently and constructively, with patient safety at the centre.

 

Turning flexible work into long-term careers and opportunities within the NHS

Flexible work shouldn’t mean limited career progression. NHSP is committed to supporting Bank Members to build meaningful, long-term careers within the NHS.

Recently, we introduced several successful initiatives to improve engagement, wellbeing and retention, including the creation of safe spaces and targeted webinars designed to enhance communication, reduce isolation and support integration. We proudly celebrated learning milestones through awards such as Bank Member of the Month, Going the Extra Mile nominations and a range of career development stories. We also continue to support healthcare professional development via our education and training solutions at the NHSP Academy.

By strengthening relationships and supporting wellbeing, we create positive experiences that drive retention, continuity and professional development, helping flexible work become a viable and valued part of the NHS workforce.

 

 

Putting people in places to care

The future of the NHS depends on a flexible, supported and inclusive workforce. Continued progress relies on strong local partnerships and shared responsibility to build a modern, inclusive, and digitally-enabled flexible workforce – a commitment central to our work.

By listening to Bank Members, simplifying access to flexible work, championing inclusion and supporting safe practice, NHSP plays a vital role in strengthening patient care and workforce sustainability.