IT contractors with commercial and business backgrounds may be missing out on lucrative and CV-enhancing NHS projects due to a perception gap, according to a survey by NHS specialist recruiter max20.
Only 7% of those IT contractors surveyed who have never worked within the NHS were aware of the size and scope of projects that the NHS offers, and 44.2% were put off applying for NHS IT contracts because they believed that NHS experience was essential for winning work in the organisation. This is despite the fact that 70% of contractors had seriously considered an NHS contract at some point in their contracting career.
“We have to get across [to contractors] that the NHS is starting to seriously consider experienced IT professionals with business skills,” explains max20 managing director Don Tomlinson. “We have placed quite a number of senior staff without NHS experience this year. Things are changing fast, but this message and others are yet to fully catch up.”
Contractors currently working on NHS contracts and who participated in the survey were, not surprisingly, much more positive about their experience of the NHS as a client. Indeed, many keep coming back for more: 42% have fulfilled between two and four contracts and 22% have completed five to ten.
Nearly half of the IT contractors currently working in the NHS stated that the scope and scale of projects was what most attracted them to the organisation, and 49% intend to keep contracting for NHS clients, if they can, over the medium-term of the next three years.
“There is still a lot of competition to find highly skilled IT professionals, even in these difficult economic times,” continues Tomlinson. “The survey’s finding that the NHS is generally keeping committed and skilled staff, often through extending IT professionals’ contracts, is a very positive sign.”
According to Tomlinson, ongoing NHS reforms will only result in more IT contract opportunities: “The reorganisation of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) is leading to growing demands for IT professionals with business backgrounds across all industries. It is a message we have got to get across to avoid skills shortages.”
So, for contractors in between contracts in depressed markets such as financial IT, max20’s survey suggests that the NHS might offer some lucrative and career-enhancing contract opportunities.