NHS patients and staff are benefiting from an almost £1 billion
boost for the frontline, as a government crack-down on rip-off
temporary staffing agencies delivers unprecedented savings.
The Health and Social Care Secretary announced strict agency spending limits last
November and ordered trusts to reduce their spend on agency staff
by 30% in the short-term so more money could be reinvested in the
frontline and the wider NHS workforce.
Latest figures show spending on agency staff has already fallen
by almost £1 billion in 2024/25 – a huge reduction which
has helped funding go towards improving the quality-of-care
patients receive, helping to reduce waiting lists, and enhancing
safety – as reducing reliance on agency staff has been shown to
decrease clinical incidents.
The savings are part of a package of reforms delivered by this
government which have collectively allowed above inflation pay
rises to all NHS staff, including resident doctors and nurses,
this year to be fully funded.
The Secretary of State and NHS England Chief Executive Jim Mackey
have today written to all trusts and integrated care boards
(ICBs), urging them to build on this progress and ultimately
eradicate agency spending altogether. If the government does
not feel further progress has been made by the autumn, it will
consider taking further legislative action.
Health Minister said:
The taxpayer has been footing the bill for rip-off agencies for
too long – while patients have languished on waiting lists and
demoralised staff faced years of pay erosion.
That's why we are pledging to eliminate this squander, and
through our Plan for Change we are making major progress and
seeing a radical reduction in costs.
We're already backing our health workers with above-inflation pay
rises and now, nearly £1 billion is being reinvested back to the
frontline, getting patients off waiting lists and putting money
back into our workforce's pocket.
The NHS was forced to spend a staggering £3 billion on agency
staff in 2023/24, money that could have been used to tackle
record waiting lists and improve patient care. Recruitment
agencies have charged NHS trusts up to £2,000 for a single
nursing shift, thanks to the 113,000 staffing vacancies across
the service.
The government's laser focus on reducing waste means all NHS
workers, including doctors and nurses, will receive real terms
pay rises for the second year in a row, fully funded from central
budgets.
It is funding a pay rise of 4% for consultants, specialty
doctors, specialists and GPs, with dentists also receiving a
contract uplift to increase their pay.
Resident doctors will see their pay rise by an average of 5.4% (a
4% rise plus a consolidated payment of £750) and we expect the
average full-time basic pay of a resident doctor will reach about
£54,300 in 2025-26. Agenda for Change (AfC) staff, which
includes nurses, health visitors, midwives, ambulance staff,
porters and cleaners will see their pay rise by 3.6%. The
starting salary for a nurse will now be around £31,050, up from
around £27,050 in 2023.
A new delivery group is being established across the Department
of Health and Social Care and NHS England to monitor progress on
tackling agency spending, and ensure trusts are taking robust
action.
Trusts were previously ordered to reduce bank use – NHS staff who
work temporary shifts at hospitals – by at least 10%, on top of
strict agency spending limits across the health service. They
have now been told to evaluate them against the local market to
ensure they are not more than the average equivalent agency
rate.
Elizabeth O'Mahony, chief financial officer at NHS England, said:
The NHS is fully committed to making sure that every penny of
taxpayers' money is used wisely to the benefit of patients and
the quality of care they receive.
Our reforms towards driving down agency spend by nearly £1
billion over the past year will boost frontline services and help
to cut down waiting lists, while ensuring fairness for our
permanent staff.
Nicola McQueen, Chief Executive at NHS Professionals, said:
We strongly welcome today's bold and progressive workforce policy
announcement from the Secretary of State to significantly reduce
external agency spending and put more investment back into
patient care.
NHS Professionals was created with the core purpose of reducing
the NHS's reliance on expensive external agencies. NHS Bank
services are transforming workforce deployment, boosting
productivity, and driving substantial cost reduction across the
NHS.
Last year we displaced over £680 million of external agency fees
across NHS Trusts and healthcare organisations, providing more
than 40 million hours of patient care. We look forward to working
closely with our NHS client Trusts and partners to deliver even
more savings across the NHS.
