In the NHS there appears to be a concerted effort to drive out interims and contractors, particularly at senior levels. This is almost certainly driven by the swathes of managers that NHSE employs in its archaic top down bureaucracy that are going to be foisted on local commissioners and providers to ‘support’ them with sustainability and longer term strategic change - and to do that they’re going to have to make room both by sacking the incumbents and getting rid of private interims etc.
The problem is that this layer of people who do tick
box ‘assurance’ are wholly incapable of either operational leadership or implementing strategies, and so people like me and my company will likely still be in high demand.
Currently the rules around off payroll staff are being tightened and all manner of obstacles being put in place to make it difficult for my clients to employ me, but where there’s a need and a will there’s always a way.
What they have failed to do is to drive out the lazy long term employment of admin and nursing staff which I’ve proved can be sorted by attention to detail and serving notice on agencies and scooping up their staff into substantive roles. The staff themselves aren’t the ones profiting greatly it’s the agency companies who are creaming off huge profits for supplying staff who are actually part of the established headcount.
I don’t make enormous profit out of offering services like this and do offer real practical help to the NHS at 50% of the rate that consultancies I’ve worked for used to charge me out at. Typically I’d be used for short sharp pieces of work that are quite specialist, but increasingly I’m being offered longer term and interim style posts to help sort out wicked problems and gaps in senior capacity and capability.
One of the risks of becoming a contractor is that tax rules are subject to change and changes of the rules is not surprising because in the past the piss was taken by amongst others ( I think) the contract IT professionals who in addition to earning lots of cash they paid minimal taxes. Even accounting for lack of pension, no pay for sickness/holidays and less job security it’s still very financially viable.
I cannot see any good reason why a contractor should pay less tax than a permie.
The Oil and Gas Industry is Contract driven. I have been a Freelance Pipping Designer/Engineer since 1961 starting with Schedule D taxation until 1976 when we had to become a Limited Company because of “The Lump”. Writers,actors etc were exempt and continued on Sch. D. When we started contracting the Permo’s didn’t like us but we still did the “Front End” designs and most of the drinking! The Goverment has tried many schemes to tie us down taxwise but our Agents and Accountants always came up with the answers plus the Petro Chem Industry and Engineering Design Companies have massive clout. Without contractors the EDC’s could not survive and would have moved to countries who would meet thier needs. I have worked mainly in Europe in my career and in the US Aussie, Korea and South America, some jobs tax paid or waved. Now I am an Actor I have to revert to Sch. D again. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Exactly. I don’t think that anyone is saying that they shouldn’t have a higher pay rate, to account for the lack of benefits and job security, but there is no reason for a tax benefit.
I guess that the immediate impact of tax normalisation is that rates would rise, and tax takings would rise. If the government paid more to the departments that had to pay more for staff, it should even out for them. But obviously there’s no way the Tories would do that!
