Why Central North West London NHS FT is implementing flexible working and collaborative rostering across medics and Allied Health Professionals

Last month, the NHS began to implement new contractual flexible working provisions, meaning that all staff will be able to request flexible arrangements from day one of employment. This is an exciting step in the right direction whereby we better support and care for our NHS people - our priority here at Locum’s Nest.

Following this positive change, we are delighted to share that Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust - London’s largest mental health Trust - will be enabling flexibility for both medics and Allied Health Professionals with the adoption of our leading shift matching and rostering technology. This will not only better the work-life balance of over 7,000 employees but aims to have a measurable impact on the current mental health crisis experienced by both doctors and their patients.

Demand for mental health support is at an all-time high

The NHS is currently fighting an increasingly long backlog caused by the pandemic with 5.6 million patients waiting for routine operations and treatments. On top of this amount and what is perhaps even more concerning is a further 1.5 million people who are still on the waitlist for mental health support.

Battling these Covid-fuelled waiting times, as well as an increasing rise in people struggling with mental health, has caused a perfect storm for NHS Trusts. Mental health organisations such as the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) are struggling to meet the demand for care, constantly chasing the tail of an ever-growing backlog.

“Mental health services are not only dealing with a rise in urgent and emergency cases but also preparing for a ‘tsunami’ of mental illness still to come.” [Royal College of Psychiatrists]

This is a great concern for the general public’s health but also when considering the wellbeing of our NHS healthcare professionals. A lack of retention and recruitment has led to 1 in 10 posts for consultant psychiatrists in England remaining vacant, leaving just one psychiatrist for every 12,567 patients. It’s therefore relatively unsurprising that up to 80% of our doctors and nurses are suffering from severe stress, burnout and their own mental health issues.

With the NHS Long Term Plan increasing the number of people accessing these services by around a quarter by 2023/24, it is imperative for Trusts to do more with less, whilst simultaneously safeguarding staff retention by protecting the wellbeing of their workforce.

The answer, we believe, lies with innovative technology that improves the wellbeing of mental health professionals, by offering access to true flexible working processes that enable both better doctor and patient care. Now, more than ever, it is crucial for new solutions to be adopted.

Implementing flexible and collaborative e-rosters, with a focus on staff wellbeing

Amongst the key enablers of flexible working, technology solutions designed to improve rostering by supporting the management of live rotas are essential. Well-designed systems cannot only optimise the process of scheduling but are able to utilise it as an opportunity to combat the issue of a poor work-life balance.

At Locum’s Nest, we harbour a strong belief that rota design should be a collaborative and empathetic process, involving both those who create and those who work the shift patterns. Doing so considers not only patient demands but also employee needs in a well-balanced equilibrium. 

These values led us to the creation of Locum’s Nest Rota, our signature flexible e-rostering service that inclusively and compassionately schedules staff with a central focus on protecting their wellbeing. Available on our mobile apps, staff are able to input work preferences, annual or study leave requests and swap shifts, reducing the overall frequency of roster-related enquiries. This also enables clearer communication and increased transparency, allowing forward-thinking Trusts, such as CNWL, to better manage when and how much leave is taken at any one time.

A step in the right direction for CNWL

Implementing Locum’s Nest Rota is major progress for CNWL who have now enabled over 7,000 staff across 150 sites to autonomously manage their work-life balance. The mobile app has also allowed for optimised rotas to be created in minutes (using ‘auto-roster’), saving precious resources and time spent on administrative processes. This is achieved through our smart technology which computes the best possible rota patterns for CNWL teams, factoring in staff preferences whilst remaining compliant with regulations in real-time. 

Rota managers can now better anticipate and identify staff to cover vacant shifts, increasing their overall fill rates and ability to tackle the waitlist backlog. Paired with our flagship shift matching solution, Locum’s Nest Match, CNWL is  able to significantly grow their staff bank with access to a community of over 40,000 healthcare professionals. Through Locum’s Nest, CNWL will be able to directly plug in the NHS’s leading collaborative bank technology of choice, making it much easier to share precious resources, experts and consultants. This is invaluable given the current shortage of mental health professionals and also contributes to the reduction of agency spend - a proven return on investment of up to £10 for every £1 invested (KSS AHSN, March 2020).

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To find out how your NHS organisation can benefit from the Locum’s Nest workforce solution, please get in touch with our co-founder, Dr Ahmed Shahrabani, at ahmed@locumsnest.co.uk or contact the team here.