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I have fulfilled all the conditions set for me in an offer for a 3-month contract for a junior NHS role in Wales, but the NHS Trust seems to want to stall the clearance process indefinitely for me and all other applicants to this contract.

A couple of days ago the NHS Trust emailed that unfortunately a decision had been made to prioritise applicants for the permanent version of the contract, and signed off with best wishes for my future. They emailed again the same day to clarify that they were not withdrawing the conditional offer of employment (only prioritising applicants to the permanent contract), but I am fully aware this could precede a withdrawal of the offer.

Since my mandatory in-person identification check 3 weeks ago, I feel/have felt obliged to lodge locally for all forthcoming appointments in the clearance process. Furthermore, in attempting to gain eligibility for Ambulance Technician Apprenticeship roles I failed my first driving test (one major fault) two days ago, tying me to this region for the purposes of access to my driving instructor's car. (The cooling off period until retaking the test is at least 10 days. I need the licence to gain eligibility to apply for Ambulance Technician Apprentice roles, and I need to be an essential worker to book a test.)

Given I have already shown the Trust a lot of commitment and have already invested a lot of my time/savings in the role, what can I do in terms of pushing them to re-prioritise me? (I have already spent 10% of the money that I would have been paid over the course of the entire 3-month contract on local lodging, am nearing the point where I would struggle to make it to payday even if given a start date tomorrow {I had been planning for the paperwork to be complete in accordance with HR's initial estimate which is now well in the past}, cannot borrow because I am not on a payroll, am under the impression that my situation makes me ineligible for unemployment benefit, and requesting to switch to a permanent contract is very far from ideal from me as explained in the comments, so I feel I have do not have much to lose by trying to negotiate with them.)

NB: I have simplified this question and am editing/improving it response to feedback from comments.

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  • I'm not sure I understand what the problem is in getting a permanent contract and then resigning when the next big opportunity comes across your path. – STT LCU Jun 11 '20 at 14:56
  • What are your reasons for not wanting to accept a permanent contract? Were you accepting the temporary contract purely so you can gain an apprenticeship afterwards? Is 3 months long enough to be able to do this? – fey Jun 11 '20 at 14:59
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    I need experience in a healthcare role to improve my eligibility for ambulance technician positions, and I need essential worker status to book driving tests. The issue with a permanent contract which I resign from after 2 months is that I might be better leaving it off my CV entirely - so it would be a waste of time in the grand scheme of things. It could give the impression either that I was sacked from the role or that I am prone to leaving jobs willy nilly - which will not impress employers who value their high retention rates (such as other NHS Trusts, potentially). – Peace Jun 11 '20 at 15:19
  • With all due respect, your edits to your question aren't really changing the core of the issue at all - you want a temporary contract, your employer is only offering permanent contracts, there's just not a match here. – Philip Kendall Jun 12 '20 at 13:11
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Without wanting to be too harsh, you seem to be making the same mistake here that a lot of other junior people make: all your reasons are based around the advantages to you, not the advantages to your potential employer. They've made the eminently reasonable decision to focus on staff who want to have a long term relationship with them, and you don't want to have a long-term relationship with them.

To get round that, you need to offer the employer something special - unless there's something that you can bring to the table that gives significant benefit to the employer, you're not going to get special treatment. The fact that you might have to return to your parents honestly doesn't matter here, that's not your employer's problem.

Or in other words: you're almost certainly not going to get that temporary contract you want. It's up to you whether you take the permanent contract in bad faith, that's a decision only you can make.

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  • +1 Pretty much exactly what I was going to write, only you have written it more diplomatically. – motosubatsu♦ Jun 11 '20 at 17:14
  • Does the motivation of getting onto an Ambulance Technician apprenticeship count? I do have a commitment to the NHS, but in this case the best route leads through two NHS trusts which are separate employers (the Hospitals Trust which I applied to, and then a separate Ambulance trust). @motosubatsu please expand on your disapproval if it helps me improve my question. I will remove the reference to my parents in case I am being judged on that (ie I sound brattish or similar). – Peace Jun 11 '20 at 17:30
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    @peace the thing is you getting ahead on your desired career path (of ambulance technician) doesn't stack up well for the hospitals trust if they are trying to to fill their permanent roles in this current arena. You're asking them to hurt their own goals in order to help you, they are trying to ensure that their trust can do it's best to care for its patients why would they compromise that for your interests? And they aren't even saying no to you, just that they are focused on the perm roles first, which isn't unreasonable. – motosubatsu♦ Jun 11 '20 at 22:19
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    @peace And no, frankly your "hardships" don't even move the needle on the hardship scale, but that doesn't matter, because the hiring process isn't a competition to see who has the best sob story and nor should it be. Especially when it's for a job that has ultimately the goal of saving lives it should be about doing the best to meet that goal. Honestly I have a ton of respect for people like you who want to get in to the saving lives business, I really do, but the same is just as true for the other candidates you seem to want to skip ahead of. – motosubatsu♦ Jun 11 '20 at 22:29

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