The coronavirus pandemic is ramping up the pressure on an already over-stretched NHS workforce across the UK and it’s only going to get worse as staff contract the illness themselves and have to stop work. Whilst many recently retired clinical staff have responded to the call to return to work, and medical students in their final year are being deployed into frontline service, new measures have been introduced to make it easier for NHS Trusts to recruit new staff and for existing staff to move around within the health service.
Flexibility around pre-employment checks
NHS Employers has published new guidelines on each of the pre-employment check standards to support employers to recruit quickly and safely during the pandemic.
The new guidelines apply with immediate effect, unless otherwise specified and relate to the recruitment of all workers and volunteers being appointed to provide emergency cover.
The guidelines outline temporary measures that may be adopted where it would not be reasonably possible to follow normal check requirements and reinforces flexibility under the pre-existing requirements, such as holding interviews via video conference.
Making staff movement easier
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with key partners to update advice to enable urgent short-term/emergency staff movements for substantive staff and bank workers.
In July 2019 the Enabling Staff Movement Toolkit was launched to allow staff to move more freely and easily between different NHS settings. The toolkit mitigates the requirement for staff to undergo employment checks, such as health clearance or DBS checks, core skills training and induction with every host organisations. Instead, parties to the agreement will accept checks undertaken by co-signatories so that an individual staff member can begin work quickly.
NHS Employers also reports that NHS England and NHS Improvement will work with NHSX to trial a temporary digital staff password that will create an embedded licence to attend agreement and store a minimum of verified credentials securely on the staff member’s smartphone. This will mean there is no requirement for the individual provider to create a separate workforce sharing agreement. The digital passport will be available to participating employers nationally.
Working together
A cohesive approach to recruitment across health and social care is also advised by NHS Employers. As organisations will all be trying to recruit from the same pools of people, working with other employers, commissioners and social care colleagues will provide a joint approach to ensure the system as a whole is resourced, avoiding preventing shortages in one area that impact across a whole place (not sure this is relevant to us).
Recruitment agencies are also being urged to work with the NHS and social care providers in the public interest.
Guidance
The Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement, Public Health England, Health Education England and NHS Employers have collated the latest workforce advice into one central resource for workforce leaders in the NHS.
The guidance should be applied in all NHS organisations within England. The NHS Staff Council Executive trade unions have also had input. The guidance will be updated and supplemented on a regular basis to respond to what is a rapidly developing situation.
Find the latest information on the NHS Employers' website here.
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