03/02/2015
DE00000915775
Dear Mr Taylor,
Thank you for your request of 27 January 2015 under the Freedom of
Information Act (2000). Your exact request was:
“
I am researching the trend in temporary staffing spend
within the NHS.
If the information is held, please can you provide me with a
breakdown of the total agency/contract staff spend per NHS
trust for the previous 5 financial years? If data is not held for
any past years, please provide information for those that you
are able to.”
I can confirm that the Department holds some information relevant to your
request.
This information is not available for all the years or categories requested. The
net amount spent in 2013/14 on Contract and Agency staff by NHS Trusts is
£1,209,134k. The breakdown of this can be seen in the attached table.
For the first time, the Department collected unaudited financial data from NHS
Trusts for 2013 /14 Contract and Agency staffing costs and income to give a
net expenditure figure. The data was collected on the NHS Summarisation
Schedules that form the basis of the Department’s Annual Report and
Accounts, and was published in the Departmental Accounts.
The figure for 13/14 Contract and Agency spend staff for all NHS Trusts
reported in the published accounts under the heading “Temporary/Agency”
(Table C12, page 197) is £1,184,479k. This is understated as one
organisation did not provide the data, so the attached table shows the higher
figure of £1,209,134k.
We asked existing 13/14 NHS Trusts to also provide prior year figures (12/13)
for Contract and Agency staff in the NHS Summarisation Schedules. These
figures have not been included in the answer as the data provided only
includes information from existing 13/14 NHS Trusts, rather than data from all
12/13 Trusts.
The prior year figures included in Table C12 of the published accounts have
also not been included in the answer, as they were compiled on a different
basis to the 13/14 figures. The figures published for 2012/13 for NHS Trusts
are based on non-permanently employed staff which is defined as “others
engaged on the objectives of the organisation and will include staff on inward
secondment or loan from other organisations, bank/agency/temporary staff
and contract staff.” This reconciles to the figures for those organisations in
note 3 (Staff Costs 2012/13), whereas the 2013-14 figures are compiled for
the first time under a stricter definition of contingent labour.
Where an NHS Trust obtains Foundation Trust status part way through any
year, the data provided is only for the part of the year the organisation
operated as an NHS Trust.
In the guidance that accompanied the data collection, the definition of
Contract / Agency staff is: “Agency” employee payments for the employment
of staff where the staff remain employees of the agency and “Contract staff”
where the NHS trust has control over numbers and qualifications of staff (in
contrast to a service obtained under contract) .
Excluded from the “Agency/Contract” category are the costs of staff recharged
by another organisation where no element of overhead is included i.e. where
the staff costs are shared between the NHS Trust and other bodies; staff on
secondment or on loan from other organisations; amounts payable to
contractors in respect of the provision of services (for example, cleaning or
security).
If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to
ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted
within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter
and should be addressed to:
Head of the Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
Room 520
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NS
Email
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxx.xxx.xx
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the Department. The ICO can be contacted at:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely,
Graham Sale
Freedom of Information Officer
Department of Health
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxx.xxx.xx