Case Study: Birmingham Children’s Trust – Locum Staffing

The Borough was looking to recruit experienced social workers to the remaining vacancies in their Assessment, Intervention and Looked after Children’s teams.

The Challenge:

As the largest local authority in Europe, the Trust had a large volume of staffing requirements and a number of key targets to achieve to ensure care is delivered to the correct standards within the region. Key deliverables that BCT wanted to address were high vacancy rates, lack of quality candidates quality candidates, challenging and diluted relationships

The Solution

Following a tender process, Instant Healthcare UK were awarded the Master Vend contract to provide a staffing solution for children’s social work services in September 2015. Instant Healthcare UK set out to deliver a new and innovative managed service, with an aim to deliver quality agency staff and projected cost savings.
Within six weeks of initial award, Instant Healthcare UK had fully integrated the Master Vendor with configured technology and specialist teams.
Instant Healthcare UK managed the implementation of the contract capturing all processes and introducing a new technology system. During the implementation phase, Instant Healthcare UK engaged with a Trust approved supply chain that is regularly audited for compliance, quality and governance.
Instant Healthcare UK also worked closely with the Trust to promote them as an employer of choice, producing marketing campaigns and supporting the Trust’s temp to perm initiatives.
As a specialist provider of children’s social workers, HCL were fully equipped to support the council in meeting service transfer deadlines and ensure there were no reductions in service performance.

Birmingham City Council recognises the important role agency workers play in maintaining staffing levels and thus supporting better outcomes for children in the community. Instant Healthcare UK’s Social Care Service is a very good example of how to manage these staffing needs between a supplier and a local authority and we take part in our innovative partnership which is unique in the sector. Instant Healthcare UK’s support has been excellent.

Yvette Waide Assistant Director, Birmingham City Council Children’s Service Department

The Results

Throughout the project with BCT, Instant Healthcare UK have understood the importance of balance between fulfilment, quality and cost saving, to ensure a sustainable service is provided and the best care is provided to the children in the region.
In line with Trust requirements, Instant Healthcare UK have worked to maintain fill rates of 95% and above, with 70% provided by Tier 1 and 15% by Tier 2 agencies. Instant Healthcare UK have also worked closely with the Trust to promote them as an employer of choice and have provided 40 candidates into substantive employment via temp to perm placements at a no cost to the Trust.
Instant Healthcare UK’s account management, reporting and supply chain management enabled the Trust to reduce agency staff by 50%.
The most recent Ofsted report noted significant improvements in staffing within the service, which has been supported by the continuity of volume placements and retention rates (average of 80%) maintained by Instant Healthcare UK.
Further improvements have been made by the technology support that Instant Healthcare UK has provided, which has reduced the administrative workloads of managers.
Following the end of the contract period in September 2019, BCT re-tendered for the same service provision and Instant Healthcare UK were successfully re-awarded, following the procurement process.

Numbers

Fill rates of 95% and above

Retention rates (Average 80%)

Reducing agency staff by 50%

40 candidates into substantive employment

Vince Clark, Interim Service Director of Birmingham’s Children’s Services Department, states of the partnership with Instant Healthcare UK:

The volume recruitment project has been crucial to our ability to make significant progress to improve staff morale and reduce average caseload. HCL have been an exemplary partner to the Council. In order to meet the needs of the service, they have been highly flexible.

Are you looking for an agency to help you with your locum or permanent staffing requirements?

Call our social care division on 03330144084 or contact care@instanthealthcareuk.co.uk to discuss how we can help.