The South East Temporary Staffing Collaborative has won the award for Data Driven Transformation of the Year at the 2024 HSJ Awards.

They were presented with their award by Dara Ó Briain, the television presenter and comedian in London on Thursday 21 November.

The HSJ judging panel recognised that by working together across the South East, 27 acute, community and mental health trusts have come together to transform the way temporary staffing is managed across the region.

Parjinder Basra, Programme Director for the South East Temporary Staffing Collaborative said “This award

recognises the whole region coming together to solve problems.

“Along with providers and our partners in the NHS family, key to success has been the weekly meetings we have with NHS England South East workforce and finance leads to ensure we are all working to the same shared goals.

“The support and encouragement we have had from Lauren Smith and Jayne Rhodes has been essential to delivering the changes and benefits.”

Utilising the power of data, the trusts shared their intelligence through digital platforms to provide visibility and enhance decision making, reducing annual spend on agency workers by £125m (based on the previous year).

By moving from “competition to collaboration”, trusts now secure best value through digitally enabled transformation and trusted transparency.” They also commended the scalability and complexity of the work, noting that the team demonstrated real passion to make a difference.

Julian Emms, Chief Executive at Berkshire Healthcare and the Collaborative’s Executive Sponsor, said: “It is such an honour to have won this award – and to have stood out amongst some serious competition in our category. This award is recognition of the hard work which trusts have led on, working closely with a central team, to deliver improved patient safety, increased clinical quality and enhanced value for money.”

Caroline Corrigan, Chief People Officer at NHS Frimley and Programme SRO, said: “The partnership approach has involved working closely with bodies including NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit, the procurement frameworks and other partners to deliver significant reductions in off-framework supply and increased compliance with NHSE agency caps.”

Since the programme’s inception in 2022/23, they have achieved remarkable outcomes:

• Off-framework usage has been reduced from 8.8% to just 1% (as of M5 24/25).

• Total agency savings of £224 million have been achieved over a two-year period (M1 2022/23 to M12 2023/24).

• Cap compliance has steadily improved, rising from 33% (M1 2022/23) to 48% (M4 24/25), driven by the Agenda for Change agency project.

Editor of the Health Service Journal, Alastair McLellan said:

“Year on year, I’m always so impressed by the innovation, dedication and integrity of all those who take the time to submit an entry to the HSJ Awards and this year has been no exception, with an outstanding calibre of applicants, presenting some tough decisions and much deliberation for her our judging panel.”

“I’d therefore like to extend my personal congratulations to the South East Temporary Staffing Collaborative who were named as the very worthy winner in the category of Data Driven Transformation of the Year. Welcome to our growing family of HSJ Awards success stories.”