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Responses > Agency v Bank

Freedom of Information request Agency v Bank

Response published: 8 October 2025
What Do They Know

FOI Request

Dear Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, I would be most grateful if you would provide me, under the Freedom of Information Act, details in respect to the request below: Provide the average hourly total cost to the Trust, for both Band 5 and Band 6 nurses in the most recent financial year. Provide costs for: Agency staff Band 5 & Band 6 Nurses (including all agency fees) Bank staff Band 5 & Band 6 Nurses (including all associated on-costs) Permanent staff Band 5 & Band 6 Nurses (including all associated on-costs) When calculating the above, please include all relevant costs to the Trust’s end for each staffing type. This should cover, but not be limited to: Temporary staffing team costs (e.g., recruitment/booking team salaries, systems) Training provision and professional development Compliance and pre-employment checks Risk management and governance costs Please present the figures in a clear, digestible format so that a direct comparison between agency, bank, and permanent hourly rates can be made. If possible, please also provide a short summary showing the percentage difference between each staffing route (agency vs bank, bank vs permanent). If any of the information is already held in a digestible report or staffing cost breakdown, please provide this instead of producing a new dataset.

FOI Response

Freedom of Information Request – Ref: FOI 226-2025

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request. Please find our response below.

You asked:

Provide the average hourly total cost to the Trust, for both Band 5 and Band 6 nurses in the most recent financial year. Provide costs for:

  • Agency staff Band 5 & Band 6 Nurses (including all agency fees)
  • Bank staff Band 5 & Band 6 Nurses (including all associated on-costs)
  • Permanent staff Band 5 & Band 6 Nurses (including all associated on-costs)

When calculating the above, please include all relevant costs to the Trust’s end for each staffing type. This should cover, but not be limited to:

  • Temporary staffing team costs (e.g., recruitment/booking team salaries, systems)
  • Training provision and professional development
  • Compliance and pre-employment checks
  • Risk management and governance costs

 

Our response:

Permanent Staff are paid on the National NHS Agenda for Change rates. Rates publicly available; Pay scales for 2025/26 | NHS Employers

Bank staff are paid at the same standard Agenda for Change rates plus 10%.

Agency Staff are mostly contracted at the NHSE Agency hourly capped rates, but some shifts do end up with an Off-framework supplier

For August 2025, the Agency hourly rates were;

Shift Duration hrs Grade Shift Type Estimated Shift Cost £ Estimated Average Rate Charged
1,145.67 Agency Band 5 Nurse Agency 1 Core Total  30,477.26 26.60 125 shift at NHSE Price cap / 7 shifts over price cap / 10 shifts off framework
579.08 Agency Band 5 Nurse Agency 2 Night / Sat Total  20,102.34 34.71 52 shifts at NHSE Price cap / 8 shifts off framework
67.00 Agency Band 5 Nurse Agency 4 Sunday / B Holiday Total    3,252.39 48.54 6 shifts at NHSE Price cap / 2 shifts off framework
1,791.75  53,831.99 30.04 Average Grade 5 hourly rate
481.67 Agency Band 6 Nurse Agency 1 Core Total 14,344.03 29.78 All at NHSE Price Cap
15.83 Agency Band 6 Nurse Agency 4 Sunday / B Holiday Total 754.46 47.65 All at NHSE Price Cap
497.50 15,098.49 30.35 Average Grade 6 Hourly Rate

The rates above exclude all on-cost expenditure as they are not collected by a staff type/grade/shift type.  Our main provider of Agency shifts charge us an additional 1% for their fee

Next steps:

Should you have any queries in relation to our response, please do not hesitate to contact us. If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your request and wish to ask us to review our response, you should write to:

Louise Moss
Head of Legal Services / Associate Director of Corporate Governance
c/o Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
Edward Jenner Court
1010 Pioneer Avenue
Gloucester Business Park
Brockworth, GL3 4AW
E-mail: louise.moss@ghc.nhs.uk

If you are not content with the outcome of any review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for further advice/guidance. Generally, the ICO will not consider your case unless you have exhausted your enquiries with the Trust which should include considering the use of the Trust’s formal complaints procedure. The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.