How many agency staff working in Welsh hospitals received the COVID-19 bonus payment?
The eligibility criteria for the NHS bonus payment is available for staff and employers to access via the following link:
https://www.nhsconfed.org/networks-countries/welsh-nhs-confederation/nhs-wales-employers/covid-19
Agency workers were not entitled to the bonus payment under this scheme. The eligibility criteria were in line with our overarching objective of securing a long term sustainable workforce via either permanent contracts with the NHS or through the opportunity to take up more flexible working through the NHS Bank arrangements.
Welsh Government do not collect centrally the number of individuals who are employed by an Agency and are working within the NHS. This is an operational matter for individual health boards and will vary significantly day by day with some individuals potentially working in a number of different settings and organisations.
All staff that meet the criteria and are employed by NHS Wales should now have received their payment. We do not currently hold information about the exact number of payments that have been made to date as the different parts of the system have used different payment systems appropriate to their own employees. The number will be reconciled once the payments have worked through the appropriate systems.