To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the amount spent on agency locums.
Answered on
29 June 2015
On 2 June 2015, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health announced a series of measures to tackle the increase in agency spend. These measures include:
- agency staff to be procured only from approved Framework Agreements. Use of off-framework arrangements only permitted in exceptional circumstances;
- those organisations in receipt of financial support or in breach of the licence will have a ceiling placed on the level of spend they are able to incur on agency staff; and
- a rate cap will be set for agency staff, with the cap permitted to be breached only in exceptional circumstances.
The controls on agency spend will begin to be rolled-out from 1 July 2015 and will be fully in place by the start of September. The controls will initially apply to nursing staff but will also apply to other clinical and management staff in due course.