Trade body responds to member demand by formally moving into the healthcare sector

Experience in high compliance and safeguarding sectors makes this a ‘logical move’

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) is launching a new dedicated Clinical & Healthcare sector group as a response to demand from the large number of existing healthcare members and significant growth in members operating within the sector. The move means specific support to clinical and healthcare recruitment firms, particularly in the areas of compliance, as well as increased collaboration with external stakeholders such as framework providers and audit organisations, as well as Government.

“APSCo already has a wealth of experience in high compliance and safeguarding sectors such as education and social work where we have developed the highly influential Compliance+ Education and Social Work quality benchmarks and these are now recognised audit standards,” said Ann Swain, CEO of APSCo, “providing more specialist and focused support is a logical next step.”

Andrew James, Regional Managing Director at Page group welcomed the move: We’re delighted that APSCo has decided to launch the Healthcare sector group, it’s a complex but rapidly growing sector of the market place that’s critical to the patient facing clinical infrastructure of the UK. Having guidance from APSCo around clinical frameworks, compliance challenges, new systems, timesheet and process integration is critical to the quality of service we’re able to offer our customers. Learning and sharing best practice along with working through some of these rapidly evolving challenges with APSCo will make a huge difference to the success we’re able to experience in this exciting market sector.”

“One of our priorities will be to work with the members to develop a Compliance+ healthcare best practice standard which would be independently audited in the same way as Compliance+ in the education and social work sectors” added Ann Swain. “We will also build relationships with the framework providers and the two main audit organisations to encourage a move towards a more consistent approach to compliance - and eventually to adopt Compliance+ Healthcare as a recognised audit standard.”

“We have identified our lobbying priorities which will include emphasising the value of the recruitment sector to the healthcare arena and articulating the costs of a compliant supply chain – as we are currently doing in the education sector. We will also be pushing for further alignment and clarity in standards across both public and private healthcare as well as participating in healthcare reform consultations such as the upcoming Health and Care Bill.”

“This will be an inclusive sector group which will provide an environment in which large and small members will have an equal footing and where we will provide support and guidance through specific meetings, events, research and tailored legal services to support the sector.”

“APSCo is uniquely positioned to provide focused services to specific sector groups and has taken this a step further with the Compliance+ best practice standard in Education and Social Work. We believe that creating a similar quality standard in healthcare will be an exciting and very positive step towards more clarity in the market, which can only be of benefit to our membership.”



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