Our principles
Our rankings come from an independent assessment of every UK healthcare recruitment agency we list. We look at how each agency operates and what it can show: its standing, its track record and how well it serves the people it places.
- Evidence, not opinionEvery assessment is built from verifiable sources: official registers, NHS procurement records, company filings and what each agency publishes about itself. We keep the evidence behind every result.
- One method for everyoneEvery agency is assessed with the same method, at the same time. No agency is treated as a special case, and improvements to the method apply to every agency at once.
- One assessment, every sectorEvery agency gets one assessment. Sector and specialty rankings show the agencies that work in each area, so a nurse sees nursing agencies, and our Specialist mark shows which go deepest in that work. The overall ranking brings together agencies that work across several sectors.
- Tiers, not false precisionWe number the top 10 in our overall ranking. Below that, and in every sector and specialty ranking, we show tiers (Top 10, Top 25 and Top 50), because small differences in the middle of a ranking aren't meaningful.
- IndependentAgencies can't pay to be listed, to rank higher or to change a result. We don't sell advertising on rankings.
- Hard to gameWe publish our principles, not our formula. That keeps the rankings a fair reflection of how agencies actually operate, rather than of who has studied the scoring.
Marks on agency pages
- SpecialistThe agency shows deep, specific knowledge of a sector's work, backed by records, assessed the same way for every agency in that sector.
- Public sector framework supplierThe agency is on at least one published public sector staffing framework supplier list.
- EstablishedThe agency's company has traded for more than five years, from Companies House.
- VerifiedSomeone at the agency has confirmed its details with a work email address.
Agencies and corrections
Agencies can verify their agency to correct facts and share information we can check. New, checkable information is assessed with the same method as everyone else's. Anyone can report an error. We never change a rank because someone asked: we re-check the evidence and apply the same method.