Nursing and midwifery Bank fill improved by over 25%
HCSW total fill has increased by over 25%
Non-clinical Bank fill increased to 96%, an improvement of 5% compared to the previous year
157 medical students and care home HCSWs recruited and trained, providing over 9,000 hours of additional support
The Situation
NHS Professionals (NHSP) has worked with University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) delivering their Managed Bank since 2006. Throughout this partnership, we have worked collaboratively to ensure the solution provided meets the changing needs of the Trust. This has been particularly important in the post-pandemic environment where staffing has been more challenging.
"Working for NHS Professionals has benefited both my career and personal life for a multitude of reasons. The opportunity to choose when I work via an easy-to-use online shift booking system offers me great flexibility with my time, which has enabled me to easily study towards my degree, whilst also making sure I maintain a healthy social life outside of work. Every shift is different to the last and always an exciting opportunity to learn new skills and meet new people."
Megan, Medical Student Healthcare Support Worker at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
The Solution
On reviewing the anticipated demand and the Trust’s ongoing needs, as the pandemic stabilised, we started a project to expand and restructure our service in line with UHS’s workforce objectives. In collaboration with our Trust stakeholders, we re-designed the delivery structure and strengthened the onsite function. This included a dedicated recruitment team which allowed NHSP to continue to work in partnership with Trust staff.
These changes allowed us to:
- be more responsive to Bank Members
- increase our ability to quickly identify and resolve challenges
- deliver a smoother onboarding experience for candidates
This new approach also allowed us to focus more on supporting non-clinical recruitment, delivering increased candidate attraction and support in these areas.
In addition to enhancing our service, the increase in resource allowed us to drive forward some pilot initiatives, offering new pathways into NHS careers within the Trust. These included:
Pilot One – Sourcing HCSW applicants by working with local universities
We formed strategic relationships with local universities and targeted second year medical students to promote the opportunity of gaining experience in a healthcare setting. This pilot also provided a high-touch approach including detailed support during the application process.
Pilot Two – Sourcing HCSW applicants by working with local care homes
Working closely with the local ICS, we created a mechanism to facilitate cross-working between local care homes and UHS, via the NHSP Bank.
For both of these innovative pilot projects, once a candidate was successful, our on-site team took on all administrative tasks including DBS checks, references, and onboarding.
After the medical students and care home HCSWs completed six shifts at the Trust, they were upgraded to full HCSW Bank Members. The rollout of these initiatives was managed by the NHSP team, in line with all the necessary UHS compliance and governance.
"As student nurses, we have really appreciated NHS Professionals providing us with the opportunity to get some paid experience to support our studies. We had not done placements yet as part of our degree, but had some prior healthcare assistant experience in care homes, so really enjoyed working shifts at UHS. NHS Professionals prepared us with all the training and made us feel ready and confident to work at the Trust and it was very rewarding."
Manaar and Lucy, Medical Student Healthcare Support Workers at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
The Result
The extra support provided by our team and the creation of these pilots have yielded great results for the Trust including:
- Bank fill for nursing and midwifery improved by over 25%
- Unfilled shifts for nursing and midwifery reduced by 18%
- Delivery of an additional 16,000 hours of nursing and midwifery support
In addition, our enhanced partnership approach delivered:
- 96% increase to non-clinical Bank fill
- 5% reduction in non-clinical unfilled shifts
- 4000 more hours of non-clinical patient care provided
These activities strengthened our long term partnership with UHS, which in 2022/23 delivered over 1.5 million hours of patient care, 190,000 shifts and 6,500 Bank Members.
Outcomes from the two pilot programmes
Both pilots have resulted in significantly higher HCSW fill across the year, making a meaningful difference to patient care.
Between April-December 2023, HCSW total fill has increased by over 25%, with 157 medical students and care home HCSWs providing over 9,000 hours of additional support.
"As an organisation we have had a long-running partnership with NHS Professionals for many years. However as the size and complexity of our bank requirement has increased over time, we recognised that we required a more agile and comprehensive service from NHSP for our temporary workforce provision.
As part of our contract renewal, we used this as an opportunity to work alongside NHSP to re-design the local delivery of our bank service. This moved us away from the long standing model we had used towards a dual on-site team approach, with one element solely focussed on recruitment/onboarding and the other managing the day-to-day operational running of the bank.
After an initial implementation and bedding in period, we have noticed significant benefits as a result of this model. This included a dedicated on-site team of recruiters to support and hand-hold new applicants, providing a comprehensive service and a more agile approach to proactively sourcing for vacancies. This significantly decreased time-to-hire and improved hiring manager satisfaction.
The on-site recruitment element has also allowed our operations team to focus on building relationships. This includes supporting Trust managers with their upcoming temporary workforce needs, greater bank engagement to aid retention and additional activities to add-value to us as a client. Now that we have had time to fully review this model, we would have no hesitation in recommending this to other Trusts and we continue to realise the ongoing benefits of the service and a performance-based contract."
Brenda Carter, Deputy Chief People Officer, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust