The National Guardian’s Office has now launched a review to identify barriers that prevent temporary staff from speaking up about patient care and safety, showcase good and innovative practices and make recommendations to strengthen the ability of temporary workers to raise concerns. This was prompted by Health Services Safety Investigations Body finding that, among other things, contingent workers were discriminated against because they were temps, and in some cases because of their ethnicity; and that some temporary workers felt unable to raise concerns about patient safety with the organisation in which they are working because they fear they will lose future opportunities to work in that organisation.
The REC is working with the independent National Guardian’s Office to involve as many agency nurses as possible in the study to boost patient safety in the NHS and raise the profile of the value of temp workers.
REC Deputy Chief Executive Kate Shoesmith said:
“The NHS must foster a workplace where every nurse, permanent or temporary, knows their voice is heard and valued. Contingent staff are essential, filling critical skills gaps and bridging the mismatch between demand and workforce capacity. It is crucial they feel safe and supported to raise concerns about patient safety without fearing it will jeopardise future opportunities. We need this to encourage the NHS to listen to agency nurses and fix how they are treated, not see them as an easy scapegoat. We strongly encourage agency nurses and agencies themselves to take this all-too rare an opportunity to have their say on how to make the NHS a better workplace.”
On the broader issue of agency workers in the NHS, Kate Shoesmith added:
“It’s disgraceful that agency staff are still excluded from the official NHS Staff Survey, which monitors vital issues such as patient safety. Patient safety should not suffer because the NHS does not respect temporary workers enough to give them a voice. Agency workers get to see different Trusts in operation and bring insights from that which are actually even more valuable because of this breadth of perspective. The NHS cannot deliver first-rate care while treating temporary workers as a secondary, overlooked workforce.”
The National Guardian review will focus on agency staff and bank only staff only.
Bethany Carter, Interim Director of Operations and Strategy at the National Guardian’s Office, said:
“Everyone working in the NHS should feel safe, supported and confident to speak up including those in temporary roles. This review gives temporary workers the chance not only to share the challenges they experience, but also to highlight examples of good practice already making a difference. Their voices are vital in helping us shape clear, practical recommendations for positive change.”
