Case Study: The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust halves employment check times with NHS Employers

Newcastle Hospitals rethinks employment checks and reduces time to hire

Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK, faced a critical challenge where its lengthy 18-24 week hiring process threatened safe staffing levels and patient care. To address this, the trust partnered with NHS Employers. The major obstacles included inefficient employment checks, such as duplicated efforts for internal moves and candidates providing incorrect documentation late in the process.

NHS Employers helped the trust implement a service improvement initiative that streamlined the entire employment checking process. This involved simplifying guidance, introducing pre-employment meetings, and utilizing the NHS Jobs system for automated reference reminders. As a result, the time to hire was more than halved to an average of 8-10 weeks, saving 25,000 working days in the first six months alone. NHS Employers' support enabled the trust to quickly bring a skilled workforce onto the wards, directly supporting its core value of putting patients first.

The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust