At Locum’s Nest, we strongly believe in the power of a collaborative workforce, having enabled NHS Trusts across the country to consistently achieve shift fill rates of over 90%, generating dramatic cost savings and empowering their employees through our suite of products.

Here we share more about this important shift and how, by embracing this change, NHS providers can become leaders in the continuously evolving healthcare landscape.

We are over the moon to announce that Locum’s Nest has been shortlisted for the renowned Design Week Awards 2021. Following the rapid deployment of three Locum’s Nest products during the pandemic, our mobile app for NHS workers is in the running for a brand new category, ‘Designing out Covid-19’.

Our aim has always been to better the lives of NHS workers; a user-centric philosophy which continues to remain front of mind whilst designing our platform of workforce solutions. We are therefore delighted to announce the launch of our brand new video series, ‘Designing for HealthTech’, which shares how Locum’s Nest is revolutionising design in healthcare technology today.

Our goal remains to increase flexible working within the NHS, improving staff retention, engagement, patient care and ultimately saving our healthcare service £1.5 billion over the next five years. By developing a suite of unique products, each individually catered to our customers specific needs, we are now able to radically transform the NHS staffing crisis.

The NHS backlog is still out of proportion, at Locum's Nest we believe more must be done to tackle this pressing issue and gain back control of the NHS waiting list. Here, we share how a multifactorial solution must involve a better allocation of existing resources.

Our solutions are leading the way in interoperability, rostering and flexible working. But perhaps most importantly, they are supporting the wellbeing of our users.

Here we share how Locum’s Nest is future-proofing workforce software and the elements that bind our forward-thinking approach.

We are delighted to share that Locum’s Nest is the official sponsor of the 2021 HPMA HR Analytics Excellence in People Awards; a chance to celebrate the work of HR, OD and NHS workforce professionals in the UK. Such individuals have continued to support and empower an inclusive, people-first culture at a time where healthcare workers have been under immense pressure. For that reason, it’s even more important we recognise these teams’ enormous contribution.

Our recent Flexa accreditation not only demonstrates our commitment to flexibility for our employees but for our NHS workers too. NHS workforce solutions must avoid treating workers as a series of spreadsheet outcomes and outputs, and should, instead, embed flexibility within their technology as a priority to build a happier, healthier and more engaged workforce.

Here we share why flexibility is so crucial within our healthcare service and how it must be embedded within workforce technology to be successful.

“As a first-time mum to a 6-month-old baby, I came to the realisation that I needed to prioritise myself and my mental health and wellbeing in order to be present for my baby and for my life as it was evolving under the shadow of a pandemic. It was this necessity for short, effective and bite-sized moments of calm that attracted me to The Nourish App.”

The team at Locum’s Nest have been revolutionising the way healthcare workers are supported with technology in the NHS. We’d like to think we played a large role in this movement and it’s wonderful that the Financial Times have picked us as the only NHS workforce platform to feature in their renowned list of Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies.

From the very beginning, we designed our technology to help healthcare organisations manage both their contingent and temporary clinicians as one workforce unit. Now, we’ve made it possible to do the same across all NHS staff groups from doctors, to pharmacists, dentists, AHPs and nurses and, more importantly, it’s already delivering great results.

It is only naturally that we at Locum’s Nest decided to partner with the inspiring TEDxNHS team this year and support this genuine grassroots movement aiming to spread inspirational stories and aspirational ideas within our NHS. Today more than ever our NHS community needs a chance to breathe and hear stories from its people that inspire hope and propel positive change.

At Locum’s Nest, we design our apps with a user-centric philosophy. Much like consumer applications, our technology uses techniques that go beyond functionality to uphold an engaging user experience. After all, our doctors and nurses are tech-savvy and deserve more than basic design - the process of booking shifts should not be boring.

In this blog, we share our favourite consumer apps and the features that inspire our leading Collaborative Bank app design.

In the last couple of years, the NHS has recognised the need for a culture shift. The NHS People Plan details its commitment to inclusive and compassionate leadership. But it is our HR and OD teams who can begin to foster this change in culture.

Here, we look at five of the latest initiatives which can help NHS HR and OD professionals to nurture a healthy culture and turn the NHS into a modern and exemplar employer to our NHS people.

Procurement frameworks provide a streamlined solution to sourcing ideal suppliers for your business needs. Whether you’re looking for the latest in patient care innovations or to optimise your rostering, using key frameworks is the best way to digitise your organisation. In this article, we share the top three NHS procurement frameworks that provide a secured route to accessing innovative tech solutions.

With a vast amount of knowledge and data accumulated over the past 6 years, hundreds of focus groups with clinicians and an extensive network of partners including advanced rostering system Rotageek and established Allocate Software, Locum's Nest has now proudly launched Locum’s Nest Rota, the e-rostering service providing an advanced and quality end-to-end NHS workforce solution to front line medics.

The Covid-19 outbreak has rapidly changed healthcare provision requirements across the nation in a dynamic manner. Staying true to our values of transparency and honesty, we wanted to share the main areas of development work where we shifted priorities to make room for Covid-related work.

Key lessons from a workforce perspective.

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of flexible workforce and the ability of national healthcare systems to be able to respond to sudden increases in demand.

We believe that interoperability is an integral part of any piece of healthcare technology that wants to sustainably integrate into the modern NHS and truly help its partner organisations. For this reason, we have developed Link, the nation's first interoperability hub, for the NHS. This allows our clients to access multiple links to other technology which would benefit from sharing the content entered into our platform, or vice versa.

Over the years we’ve become experts in applying and evaluating best practices when it comes to managing staff banks. In this article we explore specific techniques to allow rapid bank growth and engagement over the August Changeover period.