Our audit process

The NHS Workforce Alliance runs a robust Health Assurance audit process to ensure that workers provided by suppliers through our frameworks are compliant with the NHS Employers Check Standards as well as the obligations set out in the individual framework agreements. These include ensuring relevant policies, processes and practices are in place to manage ongoing compliance of workers and subcontractors.

The process is designed to identify potential issues and work with suppliers to support safer recruitment practices and help reduce risk to patient safety.

Agencies from across the whole portfolio of agreements can be audited, with a focus on driving the most effective processes for managing worker vetting across the industry.

The Health Assurance Audit process

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is our current delivery partner for the health assurance audit process; they will notify suppliers of their audit date, conduct the audit, inform suppliers of their result, and create the audit report. Following the audit, suppliers will be marked as follows:

• Pass
• Pass – Requires Improvement
• Fail

The Alliance supports PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the Health Assurance audit function and will work with suppliers to support their actions to remediate any findings, along with communicating audit outcomes with NHS Workforce Alliance colleagues. There are designated timescales for remedial actions and NHS Workforce Alliance work with suppliers to ensure they remediate any findings as promptly as possible to reduce disruption to trusts that have engaged with our framework suppliers.

Suppliers marked with a ‘fail’ outcome are immediately suspended from the relevant frameworks and are unable to supply new workers or engage in new work whilst suspended. Suppliers will be required to undergo a re-audit and will remain suspended until they have passed a re-audit and received NHS Workforce Alliance approval of framework reinstatement.

Throughout the life of the frameworks, suppliers have an ongoing obligation to compliance. Audit inspections can be carried out on both a pre-selected and ad hoc basis. On the occasion that a supplier demonstrates repeated failures and does not engage with remedial steps, they may be permanently removed from the framework.

The Health Assurance audit process is constantly evolving and continuously improving and is, therefore, subject to change throughout its duration.