{"id":5520,"date":"2024-09-03T10:53:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T10:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/?p=5520"},"modified":"2024-09-03T10:56:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T10:56:29","slug":"labour-urged-to-support-and-protect-nhss-temporary-healthcare-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/labour-urged-to-support-and-protect-nhss-temporary-healthcare-workforce\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour urged to support and protect NHS\u2019s temporary healthcare workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rec.uk.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Recruitment and Employment Confederation<\/a> (REC) is urging the government to champion the UK\u2019s temporary healthcare workforce, with the launch of it\u2019s people-first &#8216;Voice of the Worker&#8217; campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign comes as the new government is pushing on with its Employment Rights Bill within its first 100 days in power.<\/p>\n<p>The move has sparked robust debate regarding recruitment and employment, because highly regulated agency work already offers employment rights and in-work progression. There are fears that anticipated changes to employment rules could put the temporary worker market at risk.<\/p>\n<p>Further, the new government\u2019s launch of Skills England will also create more opportunities for temporary and contract workers to upskill as the Apprenticeship Levy is reformed. Although not confirmed, the government is expected to expand the Apprenticeship Levy into a \u2018Growth and Skills Levy\u2019, allowing companies to use 50 per cent of their levy contributions to fund training via routes other than apprenticeships.<\/p>\n<p>Temporary healthcare work is key in helping the NHS deal with disparate and fluctuating demand, and with the right regulations in place, enable workers greater flexibility in work and control over their work-life balance.<\/p>\n<p>Neil Carberry, REC Chief Executive, said: \u201cFlexibility at work is something to feel optimistic about. It is working for millions of people. Individual choice and employers\u2019 need for a versatile workforce can be brought together to deliver better careers and higher productivity. The government must ensure new rules support temps and that means having a real understanding of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>REC\u2019s campaign aims to show how and why temping can work for many individuals by placing the real-life stories of temps, including those working in healthcare, at its heart. The campaign urges government, employers and unions to collaborate more closely to support the UK\u2019s growing temporary workforce.<\/p>\n<p>For the campaign, REC commissioned Whitestone Insight to interview 520 temp agency workers across different sectors \u2013 not just health \u2013 in Britain in June 2024, to hear their thoughts about agency work and why it matters to them. Polling found:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Almost eight in 10 temp agency workers (79 per cent) said their work provides an important need for flexibility.<\/li>\n<li>More than two thirds of temp agency workers (68 per cent) said that their work provides a greater work-life balance.<\/li>\n<li>More than half of temp agency workers (53 per cent) believed that this is the right kind of role for their current stage in life \u2013 an active choice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>REC says it hopes its \u2018Voice of the Worker\u2019 campaign will prompt far more discussion about reform of the public sector, with public services clearly struggling with demand. Temporary workers are critical in enabling the NHS to deliver services, helping to retain skilled people in the workforce and provide solutions to NHS trusts. But NHS policies for frameworks and banks have reduced the attraction of working for the NHS for medical staff \u2013 and forced trusts to use more and more emergency shifts. By reforming frameworks, their rates and the approach taken to permanent staffing, the new government could reduce costs and get better results for patients and the Treasury. But a proper partnership is needed to achieve this, the REC argues.<\/p>\n<p>Neil Carberry added: \u201cGovernment has repeatedly made the same mistakes in NHS staffing for almost a decade \u2013 trying to pay agency staff less year-on-year than they pay substantive staff. And pretending that Banks are cheaper to the exchequer. The result of this is that there are more emergency shifts as medics reject shifts, and spending overall has gone up. Moving on from demonising agency nurses and doctors and other clinicians \u2013 and the agencies that supply them \u2013 and working in partnership with the sector on a new approach to procurement will give the new government a unique opportunity to build a sustainable supply of short-term staff, at high quality and value for both patient and taxpayer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGood and lasting workforce changes that are effective for workers and employers, happen when employers and government work together to determine what works for everyone. Our case studies show the difference talented agency and contract staff are already making in our health service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This autumn, the REC will highlight video and written case studies of temporary workers, in which they explain the reasons for wanting flexibility and the benefits of temp working, across a variety of sectors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UK\u2019s temporary healthcare workforce needs championing and protecting, suggests the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), as it launches its people-first &#8216;Voice of the Worker\u2019 campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":5521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44,25,36],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5520"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5533,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520\/revisions\/5533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}