NHS quadruples its use of off-payroll appointees

A last-minute surge in limited company usage in the NHS is being frowned upon, except perhaps by the 30 or so executives reported to be using such an ‘off-payroll’ arrangement.

In fact, in the financial year 2015-16, the NHS approved 33 requests to hire professionals ‘off the books,’ up from just 8 in the previous year, show data obtained by Health Service Journal.

Rates equating to a £550,000 yearly salary were reported to be earned by the executives, some of whom were said to have previously taken early retirement with £700,000 payoffs.

The Telegraph, which obtained the Journal’s data, scorned: “Such payments are adding to the worst NHS deficit on record, with £3.6bn spent on agency workers in the past financial year.”

The £550k figure will embarrass health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who vowed last year that no temporary manager would in future earn more than a full-time one (maximum salary £340k).

The data will also anger Jim Mackey, CEO of NHS Improvement, who in February attacked the “awful number” of PSCs on the NHS “not paying very much tax” by being off-payroll.

Neither Mr Mackay nor Mr Hunt directed their ire at IT specialists, for whom demand on the NHS is robust on a contract basis, partly as they can be put to work quicker than ‘permies.’  

But regardless of sector or skill, all non-payroll workers at public sector organisations – including the NHS – are soon to be subjected to new status and tax rules.

To bite from April 2017, the rules could “stop the vast majority of PSCs from providing services to the public sector,” which some say faces an even worse skills deficit as a result.

The government will hope its freshly launched consultation on the rules returns a framework that cuts the duration of roles for the NHS’s PSCs – up to two years, the Journal found.