The benefits of having a dedicated ESR Steering Group
Experiences of The South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Background
Employing circa 4,500 staff, the Trust provides mental health, learning disability and specialist children's services across South Staffordshire and mental health and learning disability services in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Powys. We also provide some services on a wider regional or national basis.
The ESR Steering Group
The SSSFT ESR Benefits Realisation Working Group was formed several years ago. Its objective was to ensure that ESR was being used as effectively as possible across the organisation. The group consisted of essential members - core ESR users from Finance, HR and Organisational Development, and then optional members – Managers and Admin Staff who were called upon from time to time to tap into their experience and knowledge and gain their support. Under the Working Group’s steerage the Trust implemented:
- Self Service for Staff and Managers;
- Position Based Access Control (PBAC);
- Establishment Control;
- The Streamlined Junior Doctors (Deanery) interface;
- The NHS Jobs interface;
- Competencies against positions;
- Full use of OLM for both mandatory and non-mandatory training courses;
- Recording of appraisal dates.
If the group members weren’t already, they soon became ESR Champions valuing the efficiencies of the integrated end to end system. Their enthusiasm for making ESR work for the Trust saw them score 92% on a previous ESR Health Check, when their ESR usage was assessed by the NHS ESR Central Team in January 2014.
Once the Group had maximised the ESR benefits available at that time, it was disbanded. However, the close working relationship continued between Core users and “all things ESR” became an Agenda item at the monthly Finance / HR meeting. The on-going collaboration and enthusiasm for the system has enabled the Trust to continue to gain maximum efficiencies through its use of ESR. The Trust has gone on to implement an electronic expenses and rostering system that interfaces with ESR. The rostering system has been made available to not only rostered 24/7 services, but has been rolled out Trust wide so that all temporary variations to pay are collected through the system and then transferred via the interface into ESR. More recently the Trust has trained Managers to use BI reports, implemented pre-hire IATs and has moved 1000+ staff requiring a 3 yearly DBS check under its T&Cs onto the DBS update service, giving assurance around their safe staffing agenda.
When the ESR Road Map was announced, the Trust reconvened the Group and renamed it the ESR Enhancement Implement Group (ESR EIG). The Groups objective is to review the enhancements being delivered as part of the ESR Road Map and to identify, agree and coordinate the implementation of these enhancements, always with service improvement and maximisation of efficiencies in mind. This is detailed in the group’s Terms of Reference.
This also enabled the Trust to be one of the first organisations in the West Midlands to undertake an ESR Assessment with their NHS Regional Account Manager and Functional Advisor in December 2016. The Assessment report that followed has further enabled and supported them to move forward on a number of key ESR projects that they want to implement with the support of the NHS ESR Central Team.
The group meets on a monthly basis, documents its meetings, and sends a summary report to the Finance & Performance sub-committee to so that its activity is formally communicated and reported upwards. Achievements to date include:
- Using a phased approach, moved to on line payslips (May 2017);
- Writing a Business Justification to request an enhancement to the appraisal module to support the “Clinical Supervision” process.;
- Increased the percentage of email addresses held against assignments from 91% to 100% by March 17;
- Gained approval by NHS Digital concerning email secure domain for our local email address. The trust is the first in the country to have applied for this status and this will, in due course, enable us to maximise the benefits of the ESR Notifications released in December 2016;
- Has created its own bespoke appraisal template to manage appraisals and talent via ESR rating scales from July 17;
- Will be rolling out the new ESR Portal to all employees by the end of August 2017. Internet users are already accessing the new landing page;
- Has reviewed its recruitment processes in order to undertake the pre hire IAT process at the applicant stage, to support their time to hire and induction timelines.
Conclusion
“As ESR is the single workforce system for our organisation, setting up a working group with representatives from different areas of the Trust was a must do for us. The result is that we maximise the opportunities and benefits from the recent and forthcoming changes to the system. The quality of workforce related data and processes are improved, releasing efficiencies and redirecting as many resources as possible towards front line patient care”.
Belinda Lucas – ESR Lead & Pay Services Manager