IT contractors with commercial backgrounds continue to encounter cultural and financial barriers to securing NHS contracts. This is according to new research by specialist NHS IT recruiter max20, which found that despite the barriers, 94% of non-NHS IT contractors would consider an NHS contract.
“The fact that health service experience is often no longer a prerequisite to working in the NHS in management and technology (IM&T) roles has not permeated the IT community,” highlights max20 managing director Don Tomlinson.
He feels the reluctance of NHS managers to hire ‘outside’ contractors is a cause for concern. This is particularly so following the creation in April 2013 of the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and Clinical Support Units (CSUs).
These new structures are supposed to introduce more commercial thinking and greater competition within the NHS, particularly when CCGs and CSUs put their IT services out for tender. And nearly half of the non-NHS IT contractors responding to max20’s survey believe there will be more contract opportunities as a result.
NHS recruitment ‘a dinosaur’
max20’s survey generated responses from 220 IT contractors and IT professionals inside and outside the NHS about a range of issues. When asked how the health service could attract more commercial IT contractors into the organisation,48% of non-NHS contractors called for a ‘better outlook and processes on recruiting non-NHS IT professionals’, 36% suggested improved marketing and 16% asked for increased rates.
The fact that health service experience is often no longer a prerequisite to working in the NHS in management and technology (IM&T) roles has not permeated the IT community
Don Tomlinson, max20
These statistics were reinforced by non-NHS contractors’ comments at the end of the survey. “The NHS remains a dinosaur when it comes to recruitment,” lamented one contractor. “NHS IT departments are quite secular and often promote from within and can have the culture of it has always been done this way so it must be right.”
Another commented: “The rates are getting less and less…from a limited company aspect, so it is not worth applying for the majority [of contracts]”. A further response was: “The day rates from the NHS are comparatively poor and as a result they tend to end up with lower quality contractors, which in turn causes bigger issues”.
NHS IT staff welcome contractors
In contrast, the response from IT professionals working within the NHS was very positive. Nearly 73% of NHS IT workers welcomed the arrival of IT contractors from the commercial sector, and 80% relished the opportunity to work alongside IT professionals who can ‘pass on different skills and ways of working’, as well as having ‘more ideas and a different outlook’.
Concern about understanding NHS culture was high, though. “I am working with contractors who have no NHS experience,” observed an NHS IT professional. “I know we all have to start somewhere but these are not IT technician roles, but project management and business change [roles].”
“The challenge for the non-NHS contractors could be their zero NHS business knowledge,” explained another, “which can be significant in some technology-operations interface. I see a push from the recent changes to encourage NHS organisations to be more innovative and adopt best/better practice from outside of healthcare.”
Clearly, the negative experience of commercial IT contractors when seeking NHS contracts is not solely down to individual IT professionals already working within the NHS, particularly as when asked only 8.2% believed that the NHS still needs to recruit internally. It may be that managers and HR processes are the barriers preventing commercial IT contractors from securing NHS contracts.
The impact of NHS reorganisation
Views on the impact of the NHS reorganisation are mixed, largely because many IT contractors both inside and outside the health service don’t fully understand the implications.
Only a third of NHS IT professionals view the new CCGs and CSUs as the vehicles to introduce ‘a more commercial outlook, with greater efficiency in IT projects being implemented with greater speed’. Over 36% believe that the changes will have very little benefit. However, 19% think the changes will lead to greater collaboration with other public sector organisations.
Nearly half of commercial IT contractors feel the new structure will result in more contracts, and nearly a quarter recognised that the NHS changes could offer ‘interesting and rewarding IT work within a socially beneficial context’.
“The IT communities within and outside the NHS still need to learn more about each other,” continues Tomlinson. “There is a lack of communication and direct experience, and so clichés and inaccurate views still persist.”
He concludes: “I think this will change, perhaps slower than we would want, as the NHS enters a period of dramatic change that is in large part being driven by IT professionals.”