Where NHS IT contractors are in demand

The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, being at loggerheads with junior doctors over new working arrangements might understandably make the NHS’s non-clinical workers, such as IT contractors, wonder if they’re next in his contractual sights, writes Mark Cherry of NHS technology placements portal GoToJobBoard.

Where NHS IT is currently at

There’s certainly enough IT freelancers on the NHS to put up just as decent a fight as the doctors, partly thanks to the NHS not having been short of IT contractor opportunities in recent years. Indeed, the prolonged recovery from the ill-fated National Programme for IT (NPfIT) means that IT skills on a temporary basis are in almost constant demand, both to drive new projects and put out the fires started by the government’s £10bn blunder.

Of course, contractors should naturally be wary of resting on their laurels. We mustn’t assume that the NHS will provide such a rich stream of opportunities forever. Not only that, the NHS contractor rate caps brought in at the end of last year may mean that opportunities become less attractive from a financial standpoint, forcing IT specialists to look elsewhere.

Although it’s been almost five years since the government was forced to abandon NPfIT, the demand for IT contractors currently shows no sign of diminishing. The fallout from what Public Accounts Committee member Richard Bacon MP called “one of the worst and most expensive contracting fiascos in the history of the public sector,” has left many health authorities needing short-term help to pick up the technology pieces.

Which NHS IT skills are in rude health

So that’s why there’s solid demand for contractors with programming expertise -- SQL, SharePoint, MVC, C#, WebApi, SQL/SSRS, MDX and, as recruiters SThree said last week, QLIKVIEW.

The top-paying jobs (at the time of writing) are top-paying because candidates for them are fiercely sought-after too, good for you if you’re any of the following – EPR Software Developer; BI & SQL Developer, SharePoint Developer, Software Developer (MVC/C#/WebApi), MDX Report Developer, WordPress Developer and Qlikview/Data Warehouse Developer.

In at least the immediate term, the NHS will continue to see value in the above specialisms, in many cases because such skills are required for the kind of projects necessary to bring patient data record systems back into line.

Other popular technology roles on the Health Service this year include Data Cleansers, Data Migration Specialists, Health Records Administrators, 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd Level IT Helpdesk Support, Desktop IT and Rollout IT Specialists, Information Analysts and Developers.

No longer a closed shop

In the past, the NHS may have favoured those with prior industry experience, but this has now shifted. So knowledge of the NHS and its systems is obviously an advantage, as it will allow you to ensure your skills are in line with what is currently needed, but it is no longer essential.

In fact, healthcare providers are increasingly focused on systems efficiency, and recognise the value of bringing in IT contractors with specific business experience. In particular, those with a history of Change Management are seen as useful to the sort of projects being undertaken. Typically with IT contractors, we find that if you fully outline the skills you have, you are increasingly likely to discover that you can tailor them to the sort of opportunities on offer.

Our prognosis for NHS IT

But will this trend continue? So far at least, demand for IT contractors has been booming for at least the last three years. Umbrella company giant group conducted an analysis of the NHS last year, which revealed a significant year-on-year decrease in time between assignments for contractors in all areas of expertise. Of those analysed, 97% reported waiting between 0-31 days between jobs, suggesting the environment has never been more stable for contractors in the NHS.

And in line with a forecast made to ContractorUK back in 2013, we believe that NHS IT opportunities are likely to be particularly plentiful this year, most notably in England. While Wales and Scotland have their own systems, English health authorities are embarking on a range of projects such as Electronic Patient Record Systems, Data Migration, Business Intelligence and Front- and Back-end Web Development.

While these projects will invariably need some permies, contractors continue to enjoy one key advantage over their full-time counterparts. With it taking anywhere from six to twelve months to bring in permanent staff, there are obvious benefits for NHS organisations looking at temporary contractors who are able to start straight away.

The only health scare for NHS IT is that the agency contractor rate caps imposed by Mr Hunt, primarily to stop locum doctors commanding extremely high rates for their services, risk making the NHS a less viable and attractive sector for IT contractors. With so much demand for IT skills from the Health Service, it needs to be careful that the best talent does not opt to look elsewhere in search of rewarding work.

Editor's Note: The author, Mark Cherry, is the operations manager at GoToJobBoard, an NHS-specific job board focusing on non-medical roles, including those in the IT sector.