Recent research conducted by the TaxPayers' Alliance has found that Trusts spent £27,978,661.00 on 915 NHS settlement agreements between 2015-18.
NHS Trust Settlement Agreements
The TaxPayers' Alliance contacted 180 NHS trusts as part of their research into NHS settlement agreements, by making freedom of information requests. Of that 180, 106 trusts provided sufficient information
The key findings of the report were:-
- During the years 2015-16 and 2017-18, the trusts entered into at least 915 NHS settlement agreements, with total payouts amounting to £27,978,661.00
- The highest payout by an NHS trust was £148,771.00, which was paid out by Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- The average pay out nationwide amongst NHS trusts was £20,573.00. That average is £6,524.41 more and 46.44% higher than the local authority average of £14,048.59. The TaxPayers' Alliance report on local authority settlement agreements can be found here.
- The trust with the highest average pay outs was the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, with an average of £79,687.00, with the highest individual pay out of £117,667.00. The area of the country with the highest average pay out was Scotland, with an average of £29,497.00
- The trust with the highest number of NHS settlement agreements was the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, which entered into 90 settlement agreements during the period in question, paying out a total of £1,965,886.00
- NHS Fife spent £9,441,074.00 on the 81 NHS settlement agreements it entered into, but that figure also includes legal costs and other expenses incurred, which it failed to disaggragate when providing its freedom of information response.
- Excluding NHS Fife, the trust with the highest total payout to employees was the South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which paid out £2,190,541.00 on the 60 NHS settlement agreements it entered into.
Freedom Of Information Requests
As stated, the TaxPayers Alliance obtained the data for their report through freedom of information requests. Moreover, as the amounts being paid out by public bodies, such as local authorities, has come under growing scrutiny in recent times, more and more freedom of information requests of this nature have been made by the media.
One freedom of information request, for example, revealed that the City of York Council had entered into 33 settlement agreements, with a total pay out of £523,427.00 during a 4 year period between 2016 –20, with an average pay out of £15,861.42.
NHS Settlement Agreements: Confidentiality Clauses
One area of concern which has been raised by some is the importance of ensuring that those who enter into NHS settlement agreements are aware of their right to apeak out in terms of making public interest disclosures (i.e. whistleblowing).
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today show on the 14th November 2018, Dr Henrietta Hughes from the National Guardian's Office pointed out that: "I think it’s a great concern that staff who leave employment under a settlement agreement, believe they don’t have the right to speak up. It’s enshrined in the Public Interest Disclosure Act that workers who have concerns about safety do have the right to speak up, but the wording of settlement agreements can be so opaque that people don’t believe they have those rights."
Hughes added that the settlement agreements "may be legally accurate, but the implication is that workers fear that if they do speak up, they may be liable to return an amount of money or even liable for legal costs as well....[Its important] that we can put some plain English and key facts for workers so that if they are in a situation when they are signing a settlement agreement, that they’re really clear what their rights are about speaking up about patient safety."
