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<p>National Health Service spend on agency and contract staff is recorded in the table
below:</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="5"><p>£
Billion Expenditure</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009-10</p></td><td><p>2010-11</p></td><td><p>2011-12</p></td><td><p>2012-13</p></td><td><p>2-13-14</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2.23</p></td><td><p>2.08</p></td><td><p>1.84</p></td><td><p>2.33</p></td><td><p>2.58</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>As at 31 December 2014, the NHS had spent
£1.3 billion at NHS foundation trusts (FTs) and £1.1 billion at NHS trusts on agency
and contract staff.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In 2015-16, the NHS plans to spend
£568.2 million at NHS FTs.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The planned spend for NHS
trusts is not currently available.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Following the Francis
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> </p><p> </p><p>To support
the NHS to reduce agency spend, we are working to improve the deployment of the existing
employed nursing workforce, for example, through spreading good practice in use of
electronic rostering; improve workforce planning and supply to ensure we achieve safe
staffing levels through better recruitment and retention including, for example, supporting
nurses who want to “Return to Practice”. In addition , we are working to reduce the
cost of agency staff by, where it is possible and appropriate, requiring the NHS to
use existing frameworks (e.g. trusts receiving financial help under the Health and
Social Care Act 2012) so they can secure agency staff at market rates.</p><p> </p><p><strong>
</strong></p><p> </p><p><em>Notes:</em></p><p> </p><p>The figures reported by FTs
were different in definition from those collected from other organisations before
2012-13, and were different in status. FTs published figures for “Agency/contract”
expenditure in their annual audited accounts. Other organisations did not provide
this level of detail in their audited accounts, but reported expenditure on “Non-NHS
Staff” in annual Financial Returns. These returns followed on after the accounts and
were reconciled to them, but were not part of the audited accounts.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p>Financial Returns were discontinued in 2013 to reduce the burden on
the NHS. At the same time, the definition was aligned with FTs as “Agency/contract”.
Excluded from the “Agency/Contract” category are costs of staff recharged by another
organisation where no element of overhead is included i.e. where the staff costs are
shared between the NHS trust and other bodies; staff on secondment or on loan from
other organisations; amounts payable to contractors in respect of the provision of
services (for example, cleaning or security).</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The figure
for 2009-10 includes primary care trusts (PCTs). PCTs provided significant amounts
of patient services (in 2010, 19% of NHS nurses were employed by PCTs), and most of
these services have transferred into trusts. It is not possible to separate out PCT
expenditure between provider and commissioner costs.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>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>
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