Healthcare Locums (HCL) has signed a commercial agreement with Skillstream, a supplier of contingent workforce management software.

HCL told Recruiter that the resultant partnership, called HCL Clarity, creates “a managed service that will enable the NHS to save money by giving it the visibility it needs to significantly reduce the cost of temporary worker spend and optimise the substantive workforce.

“HCL Clarity will help NHS Trusts direct the use of agencies to preferred suppliers in a completely transparent manner, ensuring all staff are clinically and Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) compliant. The Trust can also be confident that it is HMRC compliant.”

The agreement will apply across all of HCL’s health and social care recruitment businesses.

Skillstream provides web-based e-recruitment systems that automates the entire temporary, contract or interim recruitment process. HCL will work with Skillstream and individual Trusts to design, implement and manage the full temporary worker programme, from job requisition to agency payment.

Stephen Burke, chief executive of HCL, says: “We are committed to a long-term partnership with the NHS and we believe that our understanding of the healthcare recruitment marketplace combined with this powerful software will make a real difference at a time when Trusts need to make their systems more efficient than ever.”

HCL says the partnership has the potential to save the NHS more than 15% of their total estimated agency workforce spend of £2.6bn annually, equivalent to £1.2bn over three years.