Change the way you source and engage your workforce, and make savings on your agency staffing costs

Request a personalised savings assessment

Reducing expenditure on staffing agencies is a clear ambition of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.

The plan explains that expenditure on agency staff has increased by 23% (£2.4 billion to £2.96 billion) and the use of agency staff is expensive and offers poor value. NHS organisations are being tasked to find ways of reducing agency expenditure, whilst facing staff shortfalls and increasing patient demand.

What actions can you put in place to reduce agency expenditure?

For a long time, Direct Engagement has been seen as a risky solution to the temporary staffing challenge. These risks have mainly focused around employee tax complications, non-compliant employment schemes and confusion around compliance for the worker.

Healthcare organisations needn’t be wary of introducing a Direct Engagement model though. Implemented correctly, the model can create efficiencies for temporary staffing teams by decreasing agency booking admin and drastically reduce agency spend. Investing in a digital solution to support Direct Engagement can actually help to ensure HMRC compliance, providing assurance that your organisation and staff are compliant at every stage of the process.

Allocate StaffDirect can support you to effectively manage your temporary staff and reduce your overall agency staffing costs.

How Allocate StaffDirect is helping NHS organisations

£210 Million

The amount NHS Trusts have saved in agency staffing costs

95%

The average compliance rate of Allocate StaffDirect customer organisations over the last 12 months

27%

The potential savings a Trust could make on their agency costs

Helping Trusts to reduce their agency spend

Allocate StaffDirect changes the way you engage with your workforce, introducing a direct engagement model to source temporary doctors, AHPs and more. By using Allocate StaffDirect, organisations pay the temporary worker direct, pay the agency a ‘finder’s fee’, avoid any unnecessary VAT charges and the entire process is fully automated.

As an integrated solution, Allocate StaffDirect provides end-to-end governance, with duties cascaded to substantive staff through Allocate Optima and internal bank staff through Allocate BankStaff, before being released to agencies via Allocate StaffDirect. Extensive reporting provides you a quick view of the savings generated, reduces admin and supports you to identify gaps in your organisation’s workforce ahead of time.

“The financial savings have been significant. For an investment of £565,000, the trust has saved a total of £18.1 million since the launch of the system in 2014.”
John SimonHead of Temporary Staffing, Barts Health NHS Trust

“In the first year, our agency spend reduced by 27% from £19.8million to £14.4million a year and we are track to reach £12million spend this year.”
Rachel PyrahFlexible Workforce Services Manager, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

“There was a clear and easy decision for the trust to make. The cost for Allocate StaffDirect was significantly lower than the rest of the market. These savings would help towards better resourcing for our temporary staffing team but also demonstrates greater value for money at a point when all eyes are on the spend within the trust.”
Leanne HargreavesMedics Rostering Lead, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

Reduce costs

Fill duties via a direct engagement model for 20% VAT savings (on applicable salaries) and reduce your agency staffing costs, with £30 back for every £1 you spend.

Ensure compliance

Increase fills rates with fully compliant candidates, whilst easily being able to demonstrate compliance with HMRC regulations.

Increase efficiency

Reduce admin time with pre-agreed and configured rates. Agency charges are automatically calculated, eliminating the need for manual input.

Full visibility & control

Access to real-time data and rate management provides more accurate information for reporting. A holistic and transparent view of the full process across the organisation’s workforce allows gaps to be identified earlier on.

See our Allocate StaffDirect related resources

Datasheet: Allocate StaffDirect

Case Study: Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

Savings Assessment:

A personalised agency savings assessment identifies inefficiencies and a projected value of temporary staffing savings.

Blog:

The top 9 things a digital Direct Engagement solution eliminates

Customer Story: Barts Health NHS Trust

Customer Story: Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Request your personalised savings assessment

A personalised savings assessment will help identify inefficiencies and projected temporary staffing savings specific to your organisation. Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch with more details.