NHS Hospitals in the West Midlands

Two hospitals based in the West Midlands region were looking for a supplier of temporary staff who had proven experience within the NHS and the ability to provide a wide range of skills across various shift patterns.

Manpower has been supplying temporary staff to two hospitals in the West Midlands region since 2005.  We began supplying domestic cleaning staff and due to the excellent levels of service provided - the Portering, Catering and Midwifery departments also decided to use Manpower. Not only do we supply a vast range of roles to support many requirements, we also offer the flexibility of cover for short-length shifts where needed. Today, Manpower consistently supplies up to 15 temporary staff each week across several sites and departments.

Proven experience within the NHS
They chose to work with us initially because of our experience supplying staff to more than 120 other NHS Trusts across the country. Over time, we were able to demonstrate our capability in the supply of domestic cleaning staff which led to the Portering department choosing to work with us in 2006, the Catering department in 2007 and most recently the Midwifery department in 2009.

Ability to provide a wide range of skills across various shift patterns
Our experience and available talent pool meant we could provide a broad array of skills to the NHS, including cleaners, porters, administration staff, medical secretaries (bands 3 and 5) and catering staff – many of whom subsequently take up permanent positions. The thorough selection process we take our candidates through includes an assessment relevant to the role. Our assessment package has more than 70 different assessments for skills ranging from attention to detail to food hygiene to knowledge required by medical secretaries.

Single point of contact
We introduced a single point of contact, who keeps in regular communication with the hiring managers to understand their needs, and has the full support of our National NHS Account Manager who is available to share best practice, ideas and processes. This contact ensures that we supply all temporary personnel in the timeframes required across each NHS department. They telephone the NHS hiring manager at the start of each shift to ensure all requirements have been met for that day. A full feedback process has also been implemented so that we can monitor the level of service we are providing and through continuous improvement we can ensure that the NHS hiring managers are receiving the best possible service.

Streamlined order process
We designed an order form and user guide for hiring managers to streamline and simplify the process for all NHS managers who are authorised to hire temporary staff. The guide contains, but is not limited to, contact details, the order process, pay and charge rates and CRB clearance information. We keep the NHS hiring manager informed of the status of their order on a regular basis and remain in contact with both the manager and the member of staff for the duration of their assignment to ensure we can quickly respond to changing needs.

Fully vetted and security cleared staff, including enhanced CRB disclosures
As with many NHS Trusts, reliability is a key requirement of their temporary resourcing supplier. Manpower maintains a resource pool of fully vetted and security cleared staff who can be called upon to fill all orders - even the most urgent, very short notice requirements. We ensure thousands of candidates have appropriate CRB checks completed each year. This service is available both during normal office hours and through our 24 hour on-call service – filling new orders and replacing temporary staff immediately in the case of absence.

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