1. What is the present staffing structure for Audiology services at the trust?
2. How many substantive members of staff are there at each AfC pay scale?
3. How many vacancies currently exist within the Audiology team?
4. Have the vacancies been recruited for? If so, why do any persist? When will the vacancies be advertised again?
5. Does the Audiology team within the trust make use of locums?
6. How many locums presently work within Audiology?
7. What band are the locums employed at? How is the band of the locum determined? Are the rates capped? If not, why not? Are there plans to look at capping the excessive charges?
8. Has the trust sought to lower the cost associated with locums to maximise taxpayer money?
9. What are the charges associated with each locum for the trust?
10. What was the overall spend on locum’s within Audiology in the last financial year? What was the overall spend for the months of April, May, June 2017?
11. What are the trust’s plans with regards to staffing within Audiology and the persistent use of costly locums?
12. What is the process of hiring locums in terms of pay scale selected, governance and competency checks within Audiology at MTW NHS Trust?
