Expenditure on agency staff by NHS Wales
Expenditure on agency staff by NHS Wales
The Auditor General for Wales published his Report on Expenditure on agency staff by NHS Wales on 22 January 2019.
The “facts only” report, sets key facts about the use of NHS bodies in Wales including expenditure, analysis by health bodies of underlying reasons, national initiatives to control this type of spending; and the challenges that lie ahead.
The NHS in Wales employs almost 80,00 full-time equivalent staff (excluding GP’s and those employed directly by GP Practices) and spent £3.62 billion on pay in 2017-18.
NHS Wales also needs additional staff to supplement the full-time workforce – when key posts are vacant; staff are on sick leave, holiday or absent for some other reason; or when demand for services increases, for example through winter pressures. These posts can be filled by paid overtime; internal staff banks; private sector agencies or people who enter into a direct contract with health bodies on an ad hoc basis.
Staff supplied by agencies tend to be the most expensive source of temporary staff. NHS bodies in Wales collectively spent over £160 million on agency staff in 2016-17, more than four times the equivalent figure for 2012-13. There have also been large increases in agency spend in other UK countries.
The Public Accounts Committee considered the Report in February 2019 and sought further information from the Welsh Government. On receipt of this, the Committee questioned health boards and the Welsh Government as part of the follow-up work on the implementation of the NHS Finance (Wales) Act 2014 in the summer 2019 term.
Business type: Other
Status: Complete
First published: 22/01/2019
Documents
- Letter from the Welsh Government to the Committee Chair - 27 February 2020 PDF 562 KB
- Letter from the Welsh Government - 20 August 2019 PDF 288 KB
- Letter from the Auditor General for Wales - 13 May 2019 PDF 2 MB
- Letter from the Welsh Government - 25 April 2018 PDF 238 KB
- Letter from the Committee Chair to the Welsh Government - 28 March 2019 PDF 137 KB
- Letter from the Chair of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee - 12 February 2019 PDF 104 KB
- Letter from the Committee Chair to the Chair of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee - 7 February 2019 PDF 142 KB
- Auditor General for Wales Report - Expenditure on agency staff by NHS Wales (January 2019) PDF 2 MB