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<p>National Health Service spend on temporary staff for 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15
as included within the Q4 data collection is shown below.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>
</p></td><td><p>2014/15 Q4 data collection</p><p>Unaudited (£ billion)<sup> 1</sup></p></td><td><p>2013/14
Unaudited</p><p>(£ billion)<sup> 2</sup></p></td><td><p>2012/2013</p><p>(£ billion)<sup>
3</sup></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total NHS Spend</p></td><td><p>3.34</p></td><td><p>2.61</p></td><td><p>2.33</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Following the Francis<sup>4</sup> report many trusts increased
their spend on temporary staffing to meet safe staffing levels. The Department expects
trusts to have a strong grip on their finances, and manage their contract and agency
staffing spend (including use of locums) responsibly through effective and efficient
workforce planning and management and to minimise temporary staffing costs in future
years.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>The Government is clear that
the current rate of spending is unsustainable. The Secretary of State has announced
a comprehensive package of measures to address the problem including:</p><p> </p><p>-
setting a maximum hourly rate for doctors and nurses;</p><p> </p><p>- banning the
use of agencies that are not approved;</p><p> </p><p>- putting a cap on total agency
staff spending for each NHS trust in financial difficulty; and</p><p> </p><p>- requiring
specific approval for any expensive consultancy contracts over £50,000.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p><sup>1</sup> The 2014/15 figures reflect data collected from NHS trusts
and foundation trusts as part of the Q4 data collection which is unpublished and unaudited.
Whilst this data would not ordinarily be provided as part of a Parliamentary Question
contribution, it has been included within this response as both Monitor and NHS Trust
Development Authority have separately released data relating to temporary agency staff
spend. It should be noted that their figures vary slightly from those included above.
These figures may also be subject to revision as part of the 2014/15 final audited
accounts production, and should therefore not be used once the final published Department
of Health Annual Report and Accounts.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><sup>2</sup> For
the first time, the Department collected unaudited financial data from NHS trusts
for 2013/14 on Contract and Agency staffing costs and income to give a net expenditure
figure. The data was collected on the NHS Summarisation Schedules that form the basis
of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><sup>3
</sup>The 2012/13 figures included in the 2013/14 published accounts have been included
in the same table; however they were compiled on a different basis to the 2013/14
figures. The figures published for 2012/13 for trusts are based on non-permanently
employed staff which is defined as “others engaged on the objectives of the organisation
and will include staff on inward secondment or loan from other organisations, bank/agency/temporary
staff and contract staff.” This reconciles to the figures for those organisations
in note 3 (Staff Costs 2012/13), whereas the 2013/14 figures were compiled for the
first time under a stricter definition of contingent labour.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
</p><p><sup>4</sup> http://www.midstaffspublicinquiry.com/</p><p> </p>
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