KernowFlex and agencies

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KernowFlex

KernowFlex provides reliable and experienced staff to all areas of the hospital to meet their service needs. They can assist in supporting staff requirements of all roles with an extensive source of bank and agency workers which span; nursing, admin, therapies, midwifery and more.

KernowFlex is great opportunity for individuals to experience the range of challenges and opportunities that various wards encounter. Many substantive staff holds a KernowFlex post to gain additional income and experience outside their normal department role. Contact us to find out more how we can help your area or if you wish to join the excellent team of bank staff.

Opening hours

  • Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm
  • Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays 8am to 8pm (Emergencies only)
  • Out of Hours (Please contact the Site Co-ordination Team)

Our Commitment to you

We value our workers and the work that you do together with the staff employed on the wards, together we aim to deliver high quality, compassionate care to all residents and visitors to Cornwall. We acknowledge the skill required to be able to work in an ever changing environment and will support you to enable you to complete your work in an effective and competent manner.

The KernowFlex team will advise and support you in obtaining work and training, answer queries, support your professional development, investigate complaints, provide information and make you feel like one of the team. As a KernowFlex worker you report to the Manager of Kernowflex, however during each assignment you will also report directly to the person in charge of the ward or area in which you are working

Booking and cancelling shifts

Admin & Clerical Workers

You will normally be recruited to work in a particular department or ward as needed. We will add you to the emailing list once we receive your NHS email and send out vacancies as they are requested. If you see an A&C post on the ME App, always ring the ward or department before booking the shift because they might need particular skills or training such as PAS or Maxims.

AP/CIA/TA/Laboratory/Physiotherapists/Pharmacy Workers

You will be recruited to work in a particular department and you should already have a point of contact.

RNs & HCAs

You can book shifts direct on the ME App, just look for available shifts and click book on the ones you want. Once on a ward, you can pre book with them as well. If you want to alter the times of the shifts, you will need to contact the ward direct to check if they can accommodate this for you.

Cancelling

If shifts have been booked and you need to cancel or are late for any reason, it’s your responsibility to notify both Kernowflex (8am to 8pm) or the Site Co-ordination Team (Out of hours) and the ward (via the switchboard). We operate on 3 cancelations or no show within 3 months, if this is breached you will have to come in for attendance review, however we look at every case individually.

Useful Forms

  • 2nd assignment (attached form and certification of details)
  • eRoster adjustment form
  • MeAllocate Guide
  • Welcome Pack

Our agency partnership terms

The Trust’s main priority is to provide the highest quality of care to our patients. To ensure that we achieve this priority, we are firmly committed to using only NHS approved framework agencies. We aim to reduce our reliance on costly agency workers in compliance with NHS Improvement Agency Rules.

Unsolicited contact, visits, telephone calls, emails & CVs

We have a strict policy on unsolicited contact from recruitment agencies. Agencies must not contact any of our employees, including recruiting managers, directly. We only permit agencies to have contact with those authorised within the Resourcing & Bank Team to do so.

All recruitment is centralised and carried out by the Trust’s Resourcing & Bank Team. For temporary agency cover requests and bookings all contact needs to be via the Trust’s Bank Team only and not directly with clinical and non-clinical areas, wards, outpatient areas and/or departments.

Unsolicited phone calls and emails reflect poorly on agencies and are likely to mitigate against their inclusion on our Approved Supplier List. We apologise to high quality recruitment agencies for this approach, yet we receive an unacceptable level of unsolicited contact and must strictly apply this policy.

Unauthorised visits to Trust departments and making appointments on arrival at the Trust are not permitted.

Should agencies arrive uninvited, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust managers and employees are advised not to meet with them, but to politely re-direct them to the Resourcing Team. In addition, staff are advised to forward any agency contact and/or correspondence to the relevant teams. This ensures that the correct processes ensuring patient safety are followed and avoids staff being unnecessarily distracted from our core business of providing excellent care to patients.

Agency representatives must not tour the hospital looking for staff and/or agency workers.

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust employees have been made aware of this Agency Protocol. Any issues experienced with a particular recruitment agency will be escalated to senior management for further action. This includes advising the relevant framework operator.

Unsolicited CVs and candidate profiles/details

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust has a commitment to sourcing candidates directly and as such we do not accept speculative CVs from agencies. We do, however, work with a defined list of preferred suppliers who may be invited to support us in sourcing candidates for particular roles.

In line with our preferred supplier list, we only pay agency fees where we have a signed agreement in place and an agency has been instructed by a member of the Trust’s Recruitment team.

We do not pay agency fees where speculative and unsolicited CVs are submitted to the Trust or Trust employees by any means other than the official route above.

Where this is not observed the Trust reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and initiate discussions without payment of any agency fee.

Any candidate details (whether written or spoken) or CVs that are referred directly will not constitute an introduction. The Trust will under no circumstances be responsible for any recruitment fees in relation to these contacts.

Submission of any unsolicited CVs, candidate’s details and/or proposals to the Trust will not be considered further. They will be deemed evidence of full and unlimited acceptance of this Agency Protocol.

In order to establish and maintain good working relationships with the Trust’s agency suppliers, we ask that this Protocol is adhered to, and thank you for your co-operation.

Page last reviewed: 24 May 2023

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