AQW 47130/22-27
Mr Danny Donnelly
Alliance Party
East Antrim
Tabled Date: 27/05/2026
Answered On Date: 10/06/2026
Priority Written: Yes
Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail any targets he has set to reduce the (i) dependence on; and (ii) spend on, agency nurses across the health service.
Answer:
HSC Trust expenditure on agency staff is incurred to ensure that safe and effective services can be sustained. Agency use is very much the last resort once substantive staffing; overtime and the use of bank staffing have been exhausted. A Regional Agency Reduction Implementation and Planning Group (ARIG) has been established to co-ordinate the improvement of staff utilisation, with the express objective of significantly reducing unsustainable agency and locum spend across HSC. The Group has developed and is implementing a complex work programme to safely facilitate and manage the impact on services to deliver against this objective. It should be noted progress has already been made: expenditure of ‘off-framework’ agency for the nursing group (including support staff) reducing by £120m against the base year 2022/23; agency use in Social Work has been entirely eliminated; a new framework aimed at reducing medical & dental locum costs came into effect at the start of March 2026; progress has been made to stabilise and grow the HSC workforce with a 19.5% increase in whole time equivalent staff directly employed since 2018 including 3,257 (+21.6%) more registered nurses and midwives; agency costs for the nursing group (including support staff) have reduced from a high of £186m in 2022-23 (with only 28% being on-framework) to £161.6m in 2024/25 (now with 91% being on-framework); Final expenditure data for the 2025/26 financial year is currently being collated and validated by the HSC Trusts and will be available shortly.
|