Responding to the cost-of-living crisis, we helped Trusts to access a credit union offer, through Serve and Protect. Of all 11 FTs, there were six who didn’t have an existing scheme in place to support staff and wished to arrange access as soon as possible. Now all NENC Providers have provision in place or plan to introduce it soon.
We launched a HR ‘portability agreement’ to allow the effective temporary movement of staff between organisations to support operational service delivery. All FTs are signed up to this. It negates the need to duplicate agreed organisational checks surrounding, for example, pre-employment checks and statutory/mandatory training requirements. It means NENC Providers can be more agile in responding to service needs, particularly when this involves specialist staff moving from their main employer, on a temporary basis, to support service provision in another FT. The portability agreement has been very well received.
“The time it takes to issue an honorary contract has reduced from around 20-25 days to one or two days. It has also allowed specialist surgeons from one provider to do clinical sessions in a different Trust two to three months sooner than it would have taken without the use of the Portability Agreement.“
We set up a Community of Practice group to support four providers with challenging CQC reports. This allows colleagues to collectively discuss, consider and share their experiences and best practice regarding areas such as culture, organisational development and staff experience.
Through the Provider Collaborative, all Trusts have agreed and signed up to a maximum pay rate in six speciality areas where we have some of the highest medical agency costs. Following an initial review of information on agency pay rates from each FT, this showed a wide variation in agency rates being paid across NENC Providers within the same specialty and grade. The impact of this work is currently under review to identify any financial efficiencies and to determine the agreed approach to roll out to all other specialty areas.
Working with HR Directors from each FT, we have also agreed eight workstream areas where there is mutual agreement that there are opportunities for a collaborative ‘scaled up’ approach with potential benefits across the Provider Collaborative and wider the system:
- Payroll
- Leadership Development
- Job Evaluation
- Collaborative Bank
- Occupational Health and Wellbeing
- Workforce Planning
- Recruitment
- Employee Relations and Policies
A Scaling up Programme Board is in place to ensure appropriate support, challenge and governance as this work progresses.
