Bank Partners, part of Acacium Group, has delivered a fully outsourced managed bank service to Barts Health NHS Trust since 2013. A decade on, the Trust sought to expand the scope of these staff groups and absorb their wider agency supply chain management as part of the managed service.
Highlights
Saved Barts approximately £633,000 in agency spend in 2023 alone
Saved Barts over £200,000 in agency spend since taking over estates & facilities service
Consistently delivered c. 100k hours per month to Non-Medical Non-Clinical (NMNC) shifts
Average fill rate of 94% in estates & facilities since the service launched
Over 700k patients supported in the Trust over the last year
The challenge
Due to a rise in patient demand, the Trust required additional support to ensure its sites' safe and efficient operation. Essential roles, such as porters, catering, domestics, receptionists, and security personnel, were in demand. Attracting skilled and high-quality workers within these staff groups in Greater London presented challenges, despite the availability of positions at the determined hourly pay rates.
Why Bank Partners, Acacium Group
Barts Health NHS Trust had a decade-long relationship with Acacium Group, successfully renewing and expanding the scope of the managed service over the years. With the UK’s largest candidate network, the Barts team trusted that Bank Partners could secure the right workers and manage agency supply to fulfil their organisational goals.
The solution
Working in partnership with the Trust, Bank Partners overtook the management of all flexible worker supply for estates and facilities workers in May 2023. This involved extensive engagement with Trust stakeholders, collecting historical non-clinical agency supply data, including roles, recruitment requirements, and rates. Specific policies and processes were developed and refined in collaboration with the Trust, incorporating recruitment and compliance criteria for each role, such as DBS and credit checks based on job responsibilities.
The service's success is closely measured and monitored through fill rate, response times, compliance, and customer service. Regular audits of supply chain agencies are undertaken to ensure continuous service capability in meeting the Trust's evolving needs. In 2023, Bank Partners expanded its service delivery with Barts to include estates and facilities workforce management. Previously, the Trust outsourced these services to an external provider, supplemented by a master vendor for contingent staffing. Bank Partners facilitated the transition to an in-house service, managing the flexible workforce and successfully transitioning 1,300 workers from the previous provider.
Impact
Culture of continuous improvement
Continuously refining processes through the decade-long contract, Bank Partners supported the trust through detailed management information and reporting. KPIs and service metrics have been meticulously crafted and fine-tuned, demonstrating excellence through strict performance reviews.
Establishing a strong employer value proposition
An employer brand was systematically developed to spotlight the Trust's benefits and opportunities across various marketing channels. This initiative resulted in a notably high level of engagement, further reinforced by a thorough vetting and screening process to secure the quality of workers required, with around c45k hours per month in admin and clerical support. and c. 55k hours per month in estates and facilities support.
Operational improvements
Leveraging technology for operational improvement, automated processes and chatbots were implemented to manage high recruitment communication volumes and standard recruitment compliance procedures, driving efficiency and candidate compliance.
Increased productivity and cost savings
By focusing on service development and prioritising the fulfilment of non-clinical needs from an engaged pool of workers, the Trust saved over £633,000 in 2023 alone. Having taken over the estates and facilities recruitment, over two-thirds of these workers joined the staff bank, with an additional 150+ transferring from agency to bank. Within a year, Bank Partners filled 15,000 hours weekly with bank staff at a 94% fill rate and now provide end-to-end flexible staffing, including supply chain management and streamlining suppliers, by integrating the estates and facilitates vendor service into their offering.
“Bank Partners has not only helped Barts Health to achieve some industry-leading savings on our temporary workforce spend, but this relationship has opened the doors to wider conversations with Acacium Group brands to help us simplify supply chains and take away pain-points that we couldn’t have resolved otherwise. By partnering with companies across the whole Acacium Group, we have achieved more than the sum of both our parts in a unique relationship that continues to deliver.”
John Simon, Head of Temporary Staffing, Barts Health NHS Trust
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