The Department of Health has decided not to sell NHS Professionals Limited, the largest single supplier of flexible staffing to the NHS.  The Government announced its decision to abandon the privatisation of the NHS employment agency in a written Ministerial letter.

“The Department of Health has announced that NHS Professionals Limited will remain in wholly public ownership, after offers to buy a majority stake in the company undervalued its growing potential,” the letter, written by Minister of State Health, Philip Dunne, said.

“In November 2016, the Government decided to instigate a sale of a majority share in NHS Professionals Limited as a potential path to providing it with the extra expertise, technology and investment it needed to work with more hospitals and drive greater savings for the NHS. However, after careful consideration, the Government has concluded that none of the offers received for the Company through the open, rigorous bidding process reflected the company’s growing potential and improved performance,” Dunne said.

John Nurthen, Executive Director Global Research for Staffing Industry Analysts commented, “The fact that the government could not get the price it wanted may simply reflect the fact that they overvalued the potential of the business. NHS Professionals was established in 2010 with the hope that it would reduce the NHS’s dependence on private staffing agencies, however, the majority of Healthcare Trusts today continue to rely on the private sector in order to source skilled healthcare professionals and keep our valuable healthcare system functioning”.

The decision to privatise NHS Professional drew criticism, especially from the Labour Party, which stated thatthe firm should be kept in public hands and allowed to continue playing a key role in alleviating widespread NHS understaffing.

The Guardian reported that the Labour Party welcomed the Department of Health’s decision to stop the privatisation of NHS Professionals and said it was “a major U-turn on a misguided policy from a government with no solution to the workforce crisis in the NHS”.

Justin Madders, Labour politician, also commented: “At a time when the Government says it wants to cut back the use of temporary workers, it is staggering that proposals for a sale got this far. Ministers have major questions to answer about why they tried to sell off this successful public body and how much money has been wasted in this process which could have been spent on patient care instead.”

Meanwhile, Sara Gorton, Head of health for public services union Unison said, ““Despite many warnings, ministers have once again gone through a pointless exercise, wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers cash. Instead of filling the pockets of management consultants, this money could have been better spent improving services for patients.”

In the letter, Dunne commented, “NHS Professionals currently holds a bank of over 90,000 workers filling more than 2 million shifts, saving the NHS £70 million every year. However, it only works with around a quarter of trusts, meaning that many others rely heavily on more expensive agencies to supply additional staff. We would like more trusts to work together to fill shifts via collaborative banks, and there will be opportunities for NHS Professionals Limited and others to support this work.

“Since the decision was taken to seek offers for the company, NHS Professionals has significantly increased its performance such that audited profit before tax for the year ended 31 March 2017 was 44% higher than in the previous year. This improvement in financial performance continues to be built upon in the first quarter of the current year. The company’s improved financial and operational performance means it can now invest in improved IT infrastructure, expand its services to the NHS and transform into a world-class provider of flexible staff whilst remaining under public ownership – generating further savings for the NHS, all of which will continue to be reinvested in frontline services.”