Recruitment Industry Files Complaints to the European Commission over NHS in house agency

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the industry body representing the UKís recruitment sector, today announced that it has submitted two complaints to the European Commission claiming NHS Professionals has been given unlawful state aid, and is acting illegally under EU competition law.

NHS Professionals was established in November 2000 to take over the function of NHS ënurse banksí. It has since developed into a special health authority following well-publicised failures in delivery.

The complaints have been filed following lengthy attempts by the REC to persuade the Government to change the way in which NHS Professionals operates. The REC has been engaged in correspondence and meetings with the Department of Health and NHS Professionals over the last four years to find a way of creating a ëlevel playing fieldí in the provision of agency workers to the NHS.

Neither the Government, nor NHS Professionals, have given undertakings to change their behaviour. The only course now left open to the recruitment industry has been to complain to the European Commission.

The complaints, submitted to the Commission by the REC, claim the following:

That NHS Professionals has been granted state aid (within the meaning of article 87 (1)) that should have been notified to the European Commission before its implementation. This subsidy has already reached 53 million, with a further 26.6 million estimated for 2004-

That NHS Professionals is able to offer recruitment and retention incentives that commercial agencies are unable to because of national and local framework agreements.

That private agencies are required to comply with the Care Standards Act, the draft code of practice on international recruitment and contract terms, which meet a higher level of administration than is operated by NHS Professionals.

That NHS Professionals is abusing its dominant position and is being placed in a position in which it is able to commit such abuses by:

The Government instructing NHS Trusts to use NHSP exclusively Allowing NHSP to obtain confidential information on staff payment rates paid by commercial agencies

Commenting on the complaints, Gareth Osborne, Managing Director of the REC said:

ìIt has become clear in the last few months that the Department of Health and NHS Professionals are unwilling to create a level playing field for the provision of agency workers to the NHS.

We all agree that better procurement can help reduce costs, but all that NHS Professionals has done is create an extra level of bureaucracy at great expense. It is still not too late for the NHS to engage in constructive dialogue with the recruitment industry but, in the meantime, we believe that the complaint to the European Commission is the only way of enforcing a level playing field.î