A24 GROUP - MEDIA KEY FACTS

• The A24 Group Ltd is a privately owned medical staffing agency that operates in the UK and South Africa. A24 Group manages and places some 26,000 staff, in the UK alone, with healthcare service providers. There are no outside investors or loan capital funds.
  

• In 2010 Arabella Health Staffing Ltd - a wholly-owned subsidiary of the A24 Group – acquired BNA, The British Nursing Association, and its associated nursing agency brands Grosvenor Nursing and Mayfair Nurses. Pinnacle Staffing Group Plc, the owner of BNA, accepted consideration in cash of £2,750,000.
  

• The A24 Group was founded in 1996 by entrepreneur Penny Streeter OBE, who started the company working with just her mother and co-owner, Marion. All growth has been organic, other than through the acquisition of Nursing Services of South Africa in 2006 and the BNA-related brands in 2008.
  

• Managing director Penny Streeter was awarded the OBE in the 2006 New Years Honours for ‘services to enterprise’ and was the CBI Entrepreneur of the Year, 2003. A24 Group has been listed in the Fast Track 100 ‘Fastest Growing UK Companies’ in three years, and was ranked No.1 in 2002.
  

• The Group includes agency brands Ambition 24hours, Nursing Services, Locum Services and Arabella Health – which comprises BNA, Grosvenor Nursing and Mayfair Nurses.
  

• A24 Group supplies the public and private healthcare sectors with some 1,500 temporary medical staff weekly – locum doctors, agency nurses, AHPs (Allied Healthcare Professionals) and HCA (Health Care Assistants). This includes general medical and specialist doctors and nurses.
  

• Clients include NHS hospitals and primary care providers, the private health sector, prisons and care homes, insurance and other companies. The agencies provide temporary staff for single shifts and longer term placements, where vacancies may be harder to fill.
  

• A24 Direct, BNA, Grosvenor Nursing and Mayfair Homecare are home nursing divisions that provide support by healthcare assistants for patients with personal and domestic tasks, and also more specialist care from qualified nurses. This can include nursing on a live-in, 24-hour basis. The agency supports patients and their families with a range of conditions including:
  eating disorders, geriatric and paediatric care, learning disabilities, mental health nursing,
  oncology and rehabilitation, including post-operative support.
  

• The A24 Group was the first UK medical staffing agency to provide a 24-7 service, 365 days of the year. The provision of ‘last resort’ medical staffing, often at very short notice, remains a prime service feature, to provide cover when a client’s full-time staff are absent. This service is supported by specialist training for consultants and compliance staff, and advanced IT systems (see below).
  

• The A24 Group has agencies that operate under the Government Procurement Service agreement – formerly the NHS PASA (Purchasing and Supply Agency), National Agency Nursing & Care Framework. This is usually for longer term staffing assignments, over several weeks or months.
  

• IT investment: over £1.5 million has been invested in the development of specialist IT systems. The group has recruited and trained a dedicated team of 20 in-house developers, designers and support staff. Their task is to continually maximise efficiency and safety in systems for the recruitment, management and selection of medical candidates, ensuring full compliance with the range of professional and Health & Safety requirements.
  

• Enterprise is an IT system that enables agency consultants to instantly identify and select candidate staff who are available for shifts and have required skills – as well as prior experience with the client organisation, wherever possible. Continuity of support for healthcare providers is a priority in selection.
  

• Staffshift is the on-line registration system that enables agency managers to monitor the on-line diaries of availability maintained by candidates. Authorised staff are alerted whenever compliance registrations are due for renewal. As a system safeguard, when a mandatory registration expires without renewal then selection is automatically barred, until compliance is completed and validated.
  

• The group is ethically opposed to the recruitment of medical staff for the UK directly from developing countries, many of which have severe health issues and scarce medical resources.

For further media information, interviews or other material, please contact Patrick Rea, press officer, by phoning him on 0044 (0)208 870 4976