The Government plans to ‘eliminate’ the use of agency staff across the NHS by the end of this parliament, it has said in a letter to ICBs.
It will also consider a new law to enforce this if ‘sufficient progress’ to reduce spending on agency staff is not made by autumn 2025, the health secretary said.
In a letter to ICBs and trusts, health secretary Wes Streeting and NHS England chief executive Sir James Mackey said they would be taking ‘decisive action’ to ensure trusts meet the temporary staffing target set out in the planning guidance. This target was to reduce spending on agency staff by 30% over the next financial year.
However, it added that the aim was to ‘eliminate agency use altogether by the end of this government’s term of office’, and that the DHSC and NHS England would establish a delivery group to monitor the progress of this.
‘If we do not feel that sufficient progress is being made by the autumn, we will consider what further legislative steps we should take to ensure that use of agency staff is brought to an end,’ the letter said.
They added that so far agency spending in 2025 was down by £1bn compared to 2024, following the crackdown on ‘rip-off’ temporary staffing agencies.
In 2023 to 2024, the NHS spent around £3bn on agency staff, according to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The letter said: ‘We are clear that there is no room for waste in the NHS and every organisation within the health service must play its part. It is simply not right that the taxpayer should foot the bill for billions of pounds of spend on agency staff.
‘In most cases, agency margins are an unnecessary cost to the service, when other models allow access to the same flexible workforce.’
Health minister Ashley Dalton said: ‘The taxpayer has been footing the bill for rip-off agencies for too long – while patients have languished on waiting lists and demoralised staff faced years of pay erosion.
‘That’s why we are pledging to eliminate this squander, and through our Plan for Change we are making major progress and seeing a radical reduction in costs.
‘We’re already backing our health workers with above-inflation pay rises and now nearly £1bn is being reinvested back to the frontline, getting patients off waiting lists and putting money back into our workforce’s pocket.’
Elizabeth O’Mahony, chief financial officer at NHS England, added: ‘The NHS is fully committed to making sure that every penny of taxpayers’ money is used wisely to the benefit of patients and the quality of care they receive.
‘Our reforms towards driving down agency spend by nearly £1bn over the past year will boost frontline services and help to cut down waiting lists, while ensuring fairness for our permanent staff.’
It comes as ICBs have begun to reveal their plans to cut costs across their systems, with the East of England region planning to go from six ICBs to just three, and ICBs across the South West also planning to ‘cluster’.
