Funding the gap between paying your locums and being paid by the trust.
This is finance for the agency, not for individual clinicians. We do not arrange personal borrowing for locums or agency workers.
Indicative terms
- Facilities from £50,000 to £50m
- Advances up to 100% of invoice value from specialist recruitment funders
- No concentration limits from some funders, which is the single most important feature for a healthcare agency
- Bad debt protection up to 95%, included as standard by some rather than priced as an extra
- Personal guarantees not always required
- Same-day funding once a facility is running
Why healthcare agencies need this more than most
You pay your workers weekly. The trust pays you in 30, 45 or 60 days. Every placement you make widens that gap before it closes it, which means growth actively consumes cash rather than generating it.
An agency that doubles its placements does not double its cash. It doubles its payroll obligation immediately and waits two months for the corresponding income. Without a facility sized to that, growth is the thing that kills it.
Concentration is why you get declined elsewhere
A general invoice financier caps how much of your ledger can sit with a single debtor, commonly a quarter to a third. Healthcare staffing routinely breaches that: an agency supplying one trust, or a small group of trusts, is normal in this sector.
Specialist recruitment funders take an entirely different view. Some apply no concentration limits at all, on the basis that an NHS trust is a stronger covenant than a diversified book of small private companies.
If you have been declined for concentration, you were at the wrong funder rather than running an unfundable business. That is worth knowing, because a lot of agency owners take the first decline as a verdict on the business.
Contract and permanent
Contract placement funding is the core product: timesheet-based, recurring and predictable. Permanent placement fees can also be funded, though the treatment differs because there is no ongoing timesheet trail and rebate periods create a claw-back risk funders price for.
An agency doing both should make sure the facility covers both. Plenty do not, and the perm side ends up self-funded by accident.
What funders assess
- The debtor book: which trusts and providers, and their payment history
- Whether you invoice against approved timesheets or against framework applications
- Your compliance processes: right to work, DBS, professional registration checks
- Margin per placement and how it has trended
- Existing funding arrangements and any charges over the book
That third point matters more in healthcare than in general recruitment. An agency with weak compliance is a risk to the funder as well as to the client, because a placement that should not have been made may not get paid.
Common questions
Can I get funded with one trust as most of my ledger?
Yes, with the right funder. Some specialist recruitment financiers apply no concentration limits at all. This is precisely the case that fails at a generalist and succeeds at a specialist.
Will the trust know?
Confidential facilities are available. Disclosed arrangements are also common in recruitment and many agencies prefer them for the credit control support.
Do I need to give a personal guarantee?
Not always. Some specialist recruitment funders do not require one, which is unusual and worth establishing before you sign elsewhere.
I am a locum. Can you help me?
Not with personal borrowing. We arrange finance for agencies and other healthcare businesses. If you run your own staffing business supplying other clinicians, that is a different conversation and we are happy to have it.
Related: recruitment back office solutions, funding NHS framework billing and invoice finance.
All figures are indicative and subject to lender assessment, your circumstances, valuation and prevailing market conditions. Commercial mortgages and unregulated bridging loans are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Property offered as security may be at risk if you do not keep up repayments.