The RCM said the £97m spent in 2016 on midwifery agency, bank staff and overtime in the UK could have paid for 2,731 full-time and experienced midwives or 4,391 newly qualified midwives.
Its research showed, on average, the hourly spend for an agency midwife was £43.65 – more than twice the £18.30 paid on average for a permanently employed midwife with 10 years’ experience working full time in the NHS.
Jon Skewes, RCM director for policy for employment relations and communications, said maternity services were “under staffed and under resourced” and called for a “sensible and strategic” long-term plan for NHS midwifery.
The data, released on 31 October at the RCM’s annual conference, was collected from Freedom of Information requests from 98% of the NHS maternity units in the UK.
While the cap on agency staff had helped reduce spending on agency midwives – down to £20.6m in 2016 from almost £25m in 2015, this was offset by a jump in spending on bank staff, which increased from £42.3m in 2015 to £58.6m in 2016.
The RCM said the agency cap has not tackled underlying problem and maternity units’ reliance on temporary staffing is still growing year-on-year.
“It is costing more in the long run to pay agency, bank and overtime than it would if services employed the right numbers of midwives in the first place,” Skewes said.
“The first positive step the government could take is to end public sector pay restraint and fully fund a pay rise for midwives, MSWs and other NHS staff.”
According to the union, the average midwife’s salary has decreased by more than £6,000 in value since 2010.
The government said it was committed to increasing the number of midwives in the NHS, pointing out there are more than 1,800 more midwives employed in the health service since May 2010 and a further 6,500 currently in training.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “We are clamping down on the use of expensive agency staff, saving £700m in 2016-17 including in midwifery, and also have a clear plan to ensure the NHS remains a rewarding and attractive place to work by introducing measures to allow NHS staff to work more flexibly and balance work-life commitments.”
