National Care Standards: Nurse Agencies

Nurse agencies have existed for many years to supply qualified nurses to private individuals and to healthcare establishments. In Scotland they have been licensed by health boards under the Nurses (Scotland) Act 1951. This Act made provision for agencies to be regulated in relation to the qualifications of the person who runs the agency, storing and keeping records, paying nurses, and matching skills to positions. Under this legislation, local health
boards carried out annual inspections and collected the licence fee.Over the years, nurse agencies have become an important staffing resource for all grades of qualified and unqualified staff for the NHS (Scotland) and independent sector healthcare providers, in both the acute and continuing care sectors.