A chronic shortage of nurses continues to blight healthcare in both the public and private sectors, due to changes in immigration rules and dwindling numbers entering the profession. Although recruiter margins are set to improve, agencies continue to be viewed as a last resort staffing solution.

“Our laser surgery clinics have said they have found it difficult to recruit nurses, compared with this time last year,” says Martin McDonald, recruitment executive at Optical Express. “There is a lack of confidence out there which is making people more inclined to hold on to the job they have, rather than make a move.”
And Julia March, HR director for BUPA Care Services, told Recruiter that the talent pool of nurses was dwindling. “People are getting disgruntled with nursing for all sorts of reasons. Fewer people are going into nursing as a career.”

Last November the government introduced Tier 2 for skilled workers, which requires companies to have a sponsorship licence to employ workers from outside the EU. Currently only theatre nurses and critical care nurses are covered by Tier 2.

March says: “The Home Office changes has made it financially not viable to recruit from overseas, so that pipeline has gone.

We have nurses from overseas that we have developed, trained and are still with us today - that is now not an option. The last 12 months we are seeing challenges.”

Due to the 24-hour commitment to patient care at organisations like BUPA, agencies play a critical role in providing contingency cover, March says.

“We use an agency if we don’t have sufficient personnel in our candidate bank. The agency is the last resort. We’re regulated on the number of nurses that have to be provided at each point in the day so we have to roster on that basis. People call in sick, and with the increase in holidays to 28 days, we have to cover every day.”

Despite this intensifying demand for talent, McDonald is experimenting with a number of methods of attracting expertise through increased advertising spend. “We have tried traditional methods like going back to newspapers. Most of our advertising has been online though. Online has been massively more effective and it allows us to respond much faster because candidates can apply straight away.”

But recruiters are willing to work with organisations to provide a cost-effective staffing solution, says Jo Wallis, chief executive at healthcare recruiter Geneva.
“A do a lot of work with trusts to look more strategically at their temporary staffing spend and what skills they need. If it is not the ideal situation, how can we get a better balance for the organisation? That is one of the key things that specialist staffing firms can do - linking contract, permanent, overseas and internal temporary people. As a recruiter you can add a lot of value because you get the overview of an organisation.”

The future for healthcare recruitment will dramatically change from 1 October when the National Nursing Agency Framework Agreement is introduced, says Marcella Pergande, managing director at healthcare recruiter PULSE London. “The new contract will increase the number of agencies able to work with the NHS, but it has more appropriate operating margins. It is going to bring its own challenges to the sector and to the clients because it is going to use a larger number of suppliers; there’ll be challenges to maintain clinical governance and quality.”

Deb Clarke, director of HR, Tower Hamlets NHS
“People move around in public sector agencies, so you can track them from one to another. Agencies ebb and flow in terms of their reputation and ability. That partly relates to have they kept the good people or have they lost the good people?”

Peter Cullimore, managing director, Universal Care
“Local authorities and primary care trusts are going to have much tighter budgets but if they start cutting the money available, it’s not going to be long before there are headlines about elderly people left in their homes without hot meals because local authorities are only providing services in cases that are critical.”

John Salt, website director, Totaljobs.com
“From July 2008 to July 2009 we have seen the number of applications to nursing and health jobs double on Totaljobs.com. The jobseeker audience is online in more numbers and in a more diverse representation than the traditional local print channels. They are searching increasingly for nursing and health jobs. It now seems that recruiters in this sector are following their target audience’s online migration.”