Locum, agency and permanent staff employed from 2025
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WQ.59/2026
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES
BY DEPUTY M.B. ANDREWS OF ST HELIER NORTH
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 2nd MARCH 2026
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 9th MARCH 2026
Question
"Will the Minister advise the total number of locum and agency staff employed by the Health and Social Services Department from February 2025 to date and outline what actions, if any, have been taken to reduce the number employed; and will he confirm the total number of new permanent staff employed by his Department from January 2025 to date?"
Answer
We are working to reduce our reliance on agency staff, which is currently necessary to cover gaps in our substantive workforceparticularly in roles affected by national labour market shortages. At the same time, we are strengthening our internal staff bank so that our own employees have the first opportunity to fill shortterm vacancies. While some use of agency staffing will always be required to maintain safe service delivery and cover unavoidable shortnotice absences, our intention is to minimise this wherever possible.
The number of Agency workers and breakdown by profession are listed in the table below. Agency workers have decreased since the previous year most notably for nurses. The workforce team have embarked on a recruitment drive to convert Agency workers into substantive posts and have also launched various recruitment campaigns to appoint people into substantive posts, thereby reducing the reliance on Agency workers.
Month | Nurses | Doctors | Allied Health Professionals | Other | Total |
Jan-25 | 39 | 20 | 27 |
| 86 |
Feb-25 | 39 | 29 | 25 |
| 93 |
Mar-25 | 42 | 26 | 26 | 1 | 95 |
Apr-25 | 31 | 33 | 26 |
| 90 |
May-25 | 27 | 23 | 34 |
| 84 |
Jun-25 | 24 | 32 | 30 |
| 86 |
Jul-25 | 23 | 32 | 31 |
| 86 |
Aug-25 | 21 | 38 | 31 |
| 90 |
Sep-25 | 18 | 27 | 37 |
| 82 |
Oct-25 | 18 | 28 | 32 | 5 | 83 |
Nov-25 | 14 | 28 | 32 | 6 | 80 |
Dec-25 | 14 | 28 | 28 | 5 | 75 |
Jan-26 | 15 | 23 | 28 | 2 | 68 |
The graph below highlights the downward trend in the use of Agency staff for the last 12 months.
Comparing 31 December 2024 with 31 December 2025 (to get the full 2025 year of changes), there were an additional 139 Full-Time Equivalent Permanent members in HCJ. This does not include internal transfers of service areas, such as Public Health and the Ambulance service, unless they have had additional FTE recruited during the year. The data only looks at Permanent employees, and not anyone on a Fixed- Term Contract, Zero Hours Contract, or any staff not on our payroll.
The 139 additional Permanent FTE includes:
• 10 Doctors and Consultants
• 59 Nurses and Midwives
• 65 Civil Servants and allied health professionals
Our Civil Servant grades include clinical roles such as Allied Health Professionals (e.g. Physio Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Radiology Practitioners), Psychology / Psychotherapy / Other Mental Health Clinical Roles, Social and Support Workers and other Clinical Practitioners. It also includes Pharmacology, Biomedical Scientists and Pathology roles.
• 5 Ambulance