Consultant doctors, vacancies and agency spend

Under the Freedom of Information Act, can you please supply for your NHS trust/board:

• The total number of consultant-level doctors you currently have [WTE or equivalent] – 231.31 FTE
• The total number of vacant consultant-level doctor posts you currently have [WTE or equivalent] – 52.28 (as at May 2025)

Please also supply:

• The total number of consultant-level posts substantially filled by agency locums for more than 6 months [WTE or equivalent]  The Trust considers where there are fewer than five the data is exempt as disclosure increases the risk of identification and self-identification. Under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 disclosure of information should be withheld if it could lead to an individual being identified, which would be a breach of an individual’s rights under the Data Protection Act 2018.  However, we can confirm there were fewer than 5 FTE posts filled by agency locums for more than 6 months.
• The total spend on agencies for locum consultants (both framework and non-framework) for the 2024/25 financial year [£s] Under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act, this request has been exempt on the grounds that the information is already publicly available on the Trust’s website.  Please see ‘Bank and agency spend/data’ under the ‘What we spend and how we spend it’ section of the Publication Scheme here:  Access to information
• Any existing or planned controls on recruitment of medical staff in 2025/26 [free text] – The Trust have implemented a recruitment freeze and escalation process on external recruitment which has been in place since May and will continue until September 2025.