The REC also calls on the government to save money by addressing NHS workforce challenges, including a review of NHS procurement frameworks.

The budget will be announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Wednesday, 30 October, and is widely seen as one of the most critical budgets in years. 

“Employers have been consistent in their message from day one – the chancellor must give a clear, confident and targeted path to growth over the long term,” according to REC CEO Neil Carberry.

“Part of meeting the fiscal challenge will be about how the government spends,” Carberry went on to say. “A more effective NHS, for instance, will be critical to reducing economic inactivity, improving lives, and saving money over the long term. Yet short-termism in NHS staffing thinking has driven rising costs and greater gaps in service. We need an urgent review of NHS procurement frameworks to create a sustainable supply chain of NHS staffing, which recognises the value of substantive NHS staff, and why bank and agency staff have a role, especially as many people are choosing to work in more flexible ways.” 

He added: “The NHS staffing model is in dire need of an overhaul; it is failing to deliver value for money. Huge investments go into the training of medical and clinical staff in the NHS who end up overworked and undervalued – and then leave the service, unless they take a temp job where they can better manage their working lives.

“But,” he added, “government then treats non-permanent NHS staff abysmally, excluding them from pay rises for years and then wondering why these workers don’t take shifts at bargain basement on-framework rates – they have other options. In the long run, the government ends up paying a lot more in high emergency shift rates than it would have done making a fair offer to temporary medical staff in the first place. This raises NHS costs while complicating service delivery.”

Carberry noted that NHS internal staffing banks are often more expensive than agency staffing models. “This is because the problem is about how the system is managed,” he argued, “not who the suppliers are. Now is the time to seize the opportunity to transform this system and create a powerful partnership between government, the NHS, unions, and permanent and temporary staffing experts to fix this for a generation.”

Touching on other workforce issues related to the budget, he said, the new budget must “incentivise investment in skills needed to build a UK workforce aligned to the jobs of the future. This includes ensuring the long-overdue reforms to the Apprenticeship Levy to allow recruiters to better utilise the millions of pounds they pay into the levy pot which go to waste every year”.

Plus, Carberry highlighted infrastructure needs across UK transport, calling for “a multi-year plan for investment in our regional and inter-city public transport networks. From the Elizabeth Line to the Borders Railway, this type of investment repeatedly outperforms Treasury growth expectations and has a significant labour market activation effect”.

• Comment below on this story. Or let us know what you think by emailing us at [email protected] or tweet us to tell us your thoughts or share this story with a friend.