NHS Jim Mackey email update

[LoughriggFell]

I have received this email from one of the healthcare agencies

"I am sure you will have been aware that NHS Improvement was planning to introduce new recruitment rules preventing substantive staff from working as agency staff from 1 April 2017.

Following a lobbying campaign by the Royal College of Nursing and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the chief executive of NHS Improvement, Jim Mackey has today instructed NHS trusts to 'pause' the introduction of the rules in view of further discussion with the sector.

Following on from the implementation of salary caps and the IR35 tax changes coming into force next week, this rule has been deemed as a step too far by the sector and one that could put patient safety at risk.

In his statement, Jim Mackey said:

“We have listened and responded to the feedback from nurses about the latest agency rules on substantive staff,” he said. “We’re committed to getting it right for nurses and doctors alike and making sure the system and the way staff can work is fair and equal, which is why we’re taking more time to work with the sector.”

This news is sure to be welcomed by healthcare professionals working in the NHS, although it is likely NHS Improvement will look to introduce adjusted rules in future."

Hooray for patient safety.

[TheFaQQer]

By law, every payment in public sector made after April 6th will need to be paid as a result of there being an assessment of the IR35 status of the contractor.

Will be very interesting to see how HMRC deal with those departments that aren't acting within the law - or alternatively it might be that this is just a pause until your invoice gets paid and you find that they have deducted tax and National Insurance.

I'd be very wary of what happens from here if I was working in the NHS.

[LoughriggFell]

I think they are just backing down on banning people in substantive posts from working additional agency shifts.

I agree though, I don't think the NHS has quite finalised it's strategy.

[jamesbrown]

By law, every payment in public sector made after April 6th will need to be paid as a result of there being an assessment of the IR35 status of the contractor.

Will be very interesting to see how HMRC deal with those departments that aren't acting within the law - or alternatively it might be that this is just a pause until your invoice gets paid and you find that they have deducted tax and National Insurance.

I'd be very wary of what happens from here if I was working in the NHS.

AFAIK, this isn't about the new IR35 rules in the PS, it's about agency workers providing services to more than one trust when they are substantively employed by another.

[TheFaQQer]

AFAIK, this isn't about the new IR35 rules in the PS, it's about agency workers providing services to more than one trust when they are substantively employed by another.

Ah yes, nothing to do with IR35 - if I'd read it with more care I'd have seen that it says that this is a step too far since they are doing the IR35 changes too.

[Finance]

MacKey is a simple accountant from the border region of England.
Where he comes from there is a much lower population with relatively few job choices. People there tend to be in jobs for a long time, any moves are known in good time and are easily replaced with new permanent staff. Further hospitals are much further apart with hardly any genuine opportunities to switch.
Given all that he believes that the tendency in the south and London to use supposedly expensive agency staff is just profligacy and that southern hospital managers just need to be bullied into stopping agency/interim/locum usage and all of the NHS's problems can be solved.