Publish date: 23 November 2023
Our Trust has recently gone through a tender process for the provision of a neutral vendor and direct engagement for agency staffing. The process has now concluded and the contract has been awarded to Agile Workforce Services.
There will be little change for our services who engage with agency workers, this new model will mean changes for our Temporary Staffing team. Therefore all contact relating to the booking of all agency workers will be via our client manager team at Agile who will then manage the booking on our behalf.
Agile will ensure their governance aligns with our processes and that agency workers are appropriately vetted before being booked for work.
To ensure this is successful and all the benefits are realised, all colleagues are reminded that they cannot approach agencies directly to book an agency worker, nor make any local agreements with an existing agency worker to extend a placement.
Invoices for agency bookings will come to the Trust directly from Agile as one invoice. This means timesheets need to be approved in the system so that when the invoice lands, it is matched to the approved timesheet.
The neutral vendor contract will cover all the following staffing groups:
- Nursing
- Medical Locums
- Allied Health Professionals
- Additional clinical
- Health Science services (e.g.pharmacy)
- Admin and Clerical
- Estates and Facilities
The project group is now working with the Agile team on the implementation plan and there will be further communication over the coming weeks. We anticipate the new arrangement will go live from 15 January 2024.
What are the benefits for Mersey Care?
The workload for managing temporary staffing is vast for an organisation of our size and the new way of booking will make the following efficiencies:
- Dedicated client managers
- Automated issuing of jobs to the agencies
- Proactive management of the agencies
- All compliance and rates vetted
- Electronic time-sheets and invoicing
- Comprehensive reports provided
- Partnership working with Agile to manage spend and rates
What will happen next?
Our project team and Agile are meeting on a weekly basis and working on the implementation process. Over the coming weeks the Agile team will be holding meetings to talk through the new processes so that everyone is clear on how the new model will work. This will be an opportunity for colleagues to ask any questions and to learn more about how the new processes work.
Further communications will be issued with updates on the implementation. Agile will be visiting sites in the coming weeks so you can meet the team.
We would like to thank you for your continued support as we transition to the Agile model.
If you have any queries in meantime then please contact Cathie