A CARLISLE based business is expanding due to the success of its mission to address NHS staffing shortages by changing the way the country’s biggest employer attracts and retains staff.
Established in 2016, Just R has helped over 40 NHS Trusts and healthcare organisations with challenges big and small, from transforming their recruitment function to hiring hard-to-fill roles. It’s saved the NHS millions [1], says founder, Rachael Bagshaw.
The Just R team has doubled in size in the last year – from six to 12. Rachael expects the business to take on 10 more staff each year, over the next five years, as they develop longer term strategic partnerships with the NHS.
Rachael says their growth is based on new, industry leading approaches which have helped the NHS find much-needed nurses and health care workers.
As Rachael Bagshaw explains:
“I set up Just R after learning of the NHS’s £3.2bn annual spend on temporary agency staff and its impact on retention, culture and patient safety. It was clear the traditional NHS recruitment model was broken and a new solution was needed.
“We want to help the NHS and healthcare organisations transform their people processes, so they’re more sustainable and effective – including how staff are brought on board and supported.
“I have a business solutions background, an insight into NHS care and a passion to solve this,”
Rachael Bagshaw
Just R has helped address a shortage of nurses in London [2], filled health care worker vacancies at a Bradford hospital [3] and saved the NHS around £960,000 by recruiting 106 nurses in East Anglia [1]. The team has also filled 300 positions at a new laboratory in Bracknell used for COVID-19 testing.
Rachael Bagshaw says:
“Since the NHS was created in 1948, it’s never had enough nurses and there’s been an overreliance on students to solve the problem. Seventy years on the problem and the nursing shortfall is the same, around 44,000 [4] nurses are urgently needed.
“If the NHS doesn’t act now to make key changes to the way it operates, the situation will get worse. By 2030 the NHS will need 250,000 new staff [5] and the world will need 6 million new nurses [6],” adds Rachael.
Just R has seven recommendations to retain and grow the skilled workforce the NHS needs. It says it’s working with the NHS on five. They are: the strategic deployment of agency staff, tapping into the passive job market, recruiting based on values, supporting new hires properly and using information about why people leave to improve attraction and retention processes.
“We want the NHS to be the world’s healthcare employer of choice,” continues Rachael.
“I’m passionate about our mission and that we will be able to achieve this. And savings made can be diverted into better patient care and ultimately, save lives,” says Rachael.
As for the immediate focus for the newly expanded Just R team it’s to capture and use interviews with NHS staff to improve how they attract and retain staff.
For more information about Just R – visit their new website https://just-r.com/
