Are you looking for Healthcare Assistants (HCA) to work for your practice on a flexible basis? If so, please read on for further information regarding the benefits of using NHS Gloucestershire’s Flexible Staffing Pool. Please be assured that this pool is for HCAs in Primary Care who are already in substantive roles in general practice who are looking to undertake additional work which may not be available in the practices they are employed in.
What is a Flexible Staffing Pool?
NHS Gloucestershire’s Primary Care Flexible staffing pool provides the opportunity for people including GPs, HCAs and shortly, Reception and Administrative staff to undertake additional work in General Practice on a flexible basis. Our existing Locum flexible pool has delivered considerable benefits GPs and Practices and Gloucestershire ICB wish to offer the opportunity for flexible working to a wider range of roles including HCAs.
Who runs our Flexible Staffing Pool?
NASGP (National Association of Sessional GPs) have developed our existing flexible pool for GPs and provide flexible staffing pools for HCAs in General Practice in other parts of the country.
How can our Flexible Staffing Pool support practices?
In providing the opportunity for HCAs to join our flexible staffing pool, practices will be able to access a pool of HCAs in one place and will be able to book available HCAs instantly via NASGPs LocumDeck system. The HCAs working within the pool will already be in substantive posts; this pool is for colleagues wanting to work some additional hours outside of their current role.
We want to highlight that:
- The pool is for HCAs in Primary Care who are already in substantive roles in general practice who are looking to undertake additional work which may not be available in their own surgeries.
- NASGP are not an agency, meaning there are no joining or agency fees to pay for you as a Practice, where an HCA works for the flexible pool on a self-employed basis.
- Further details of a bank working model for HCAs (where HCAs don’t want to work on a self-employed basis) will be shared with HCAs shortly. This should not impact HCAs current substantive roles from a practice perspective.
Benefits to you:
- Flexible access to a pool of HCAs
- The ability to instantly book available HCAs
- Maintaining a high level of patient experience
- Diversifying the skill mix and experience of existing staff
- The opportunity to showcase your practice
How do I register?
The HCA pool will be launched to practices over the next few weeks once we have engaged HCAs with the opportunity. We already have HCAs registering for the flexible pool, so it won’t be long before you’re ale to book these colleagues. In the meantime, if you would like to register your interest in using the HCA flexible pool for your practice, please email the Primary Care Workforce Team at glicb.pcwc@nhs.net. A link with further details of how to book HCAs for your practice will be shared via What’s New this Week, over the next few weeks.
Thanks for your time in reading this. If you have any questions, contact Gloucestershire Training hub on: glicb.pcwc@nhs.net