ESR Transformation Programme update
The NHSBSA recently established a Transformation Programme for the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) as outlined in the March edition of ESR News. The Transformation Programme is now in progress and the Transformation Roadmap outlining the key stages of delivery is summarised below:
As the first stage of the ESR Transformation Programme, the NHSBSA initiated a Discovery project in February 2021. The Discovery activities included the largest user/stakeholder engagement and listening exercise since ESR was implemented.
Users and stakeholders from across the NHS in England and Wales have been engaged to tell us about their experiences of ESR and understand needs for a future NHS workforce solution. As part of this process over 13,000 NHS staff and over 3,400 NHS managers shared their views via an online survey, with users and regional/national stakeholders also taking part in interviews and focus groups throughout March 2021.
The findings from this research have enabled us to understand what our users and strategic stakeholders think about the functionality within ESR, their user experience, how ESR supports strategic workforce planning and what they would expect from a future NHS workforce solution.
The findings from the research have been categorised into the following key themes;
Interoperabilty;
Experience of ESR varies on how it has been implemented in each organisation (e.g. the areas of functionality that are utilised). There is a clear desire from users and stakeholders to extend and refine interoperability with other systems.
Data and Insights;
Strategic users advised that ESR provides them with the workforce data they need to support strategic decision making. At the same time, there are aspects that could be extended, particularly in relation to workforce planning.
Ease of use and navigation;
User research identified “look and feel” and ease of navigation as key aspects influencing the usability of ESR. Users and strategic stakeholders were not always aware of ESR’s full capabilities and recognised the potential to do more.
Effectiveness in supporting workforce planning;
ESR is viewed as a rich source of information and stakeholders expressed a desire for more meaningful experiences enabled by the data.
The research that has identified these key themes will be distilled further, and will also incorporate the findings from the Future HR and OD Programme led by NHS England and NHS Improvement - together these will help shape the vision for the future NHS workforce solution.
At the centre of the vision sits the future experience, delivering a cohesive and connected suite of workforce management capabilities that can best support the needs of NHS employees, people managers and professional users, as presented in below:
At this stage in the Discovery project the vision will continue to be refined with a view to defining candidate solution options in subsequent stages of delivery by July 2021. This will then be followed by an assessment of candidate solution options that is expect to complete by summer 2022, as presented within the roadmap.
In addition to the user research informing the vision for the future NHS workforce solution, the findings are also being considered to identify potential areas of enhancement for the existing ESR service. Areas where we could look to enhance the existing ESR service based on these findings will form part of our future planning.
Further details about these plans will be communicated to our stakeholders in the usual way via our special interest groups and other communication channels in the coming months.
Further updates about the progress of the ESR Discovery will be published via the ESR Transformation page on the ESR Hub website.
A partnership with NHSEI to deliver clinical quality improvement to the NHS
In May 2021 the NHSBSA ESR Service completed the ESR and National Consultant Information Programme (NCIP) pilot involving fifteen NHS trusts.
This pilot, utilising interface capability, paved the way for a national rollout programme, aiming to deliver the NCIP portal to consultants within 150 trusts by the end of 2021. The first tranche of the national roll out went live on 18th June 2021, with two other tranches planned for go live in September and December 2021.
What is NCIP and why is it needed?
The National Consultant Information Programme within NHS England and Improvement has developed an online NCIP portal, which provides NHS consultants with a single point of access to clinical outcomes information. It covers their whole area of practice and provides a mechanism to support safety monitoring. The portal does this by combining different sources of data including Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and speciality audits (to name a few), into a single place. It is initially being made available to consultant surgeons working in eight participating specialities of ENT, general surgery, ophthalmology, oral & maxillofacial surgery, orthopaedics, paediatric surgery and urology. The portal enables NHS consultants to review information about their clinical activity and their patients’ outcomes against benchmarks, thus enabling them to drive quality improvements. It supports safety for patients and can be used for appraisals and revalidation.
Figure: NCIP delivers benefits to multiple stakeholders
By becoming the objective source of truth for consultants’ outcome data, it drives consultants to a better and improved quality of care which increases patient safety, streamlines the delivery of care and leads to savings made in potential litigation and unnecessary care.
Professor Sir Norman Williams – Chair of NCIP.
The NCIP Programme aims to make the clinically validated consultant level outcome metrics available to 28,000 consultants in the next 3 years.
ESRs role
The NHSBSA ESR team have developed a new interface for the NCIP programme. Following an NHS Trust authorising use of this interface (by raising an ESR service request (SR)), the NCIP programme is provided with the minimum data required to set up and manage access for consultants on the portal, including:
- Name,
- GMC number,
- Work email address, and
- Area of work.
The interface does not include pay related data. This link is the necessary first step to granting the consultant access to the online portal. As such, the ESR NCIP interface is integral to consultants’ access to the NCIP portal.
Without the amazing ESR team at the NHSBSA, we wouldn’t be in the position we are now. With the support of the ESR team, we are exceeding our roll-out and implementation expectations. This means that we are able to provide consultant surgeons with access to their outcomes data in a timely manner, not only generating but growing enthusiasm and engagement within the consultant community. Over the medium and longer term, this will enable us to realise more benefits and realise them earlier. We also know that should any issues arise; the NHS ESR team will be there on hand to guide and help as they have been to date. We are excited to continue this partnership and would like to thank the ESR team for all they are doing.
Marina Bogovac, Head of National Consultant Information Programme (NCIP)
Through its partnership with NCIP, the NHSBSA ESR Service continues its indispensable contribution to the NHS workforce landscape and helps to deliver the quality improvement to the wider NHS which has been identified in the NHS Long Term Plan.
NCIP and ESR partnership - the next steps
NCIP are in the process of reaching out to trusts for the upcoming tranches of roll out September and December and are inviting organisations to contact them at nhsi.ncip@nhs.net for expressions of interest. ESR will continue to work closely with NCIP to ensure that trusts that are identified for the two tranches are provided with the information they need to raise the service desk requests; which is a pre-requisite to adding the trust to the ESR NCIP interface.
For any information on the NCIP programme please visit https://www.gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/ncip/
New Functional Marketing Materials on the ESR Hub
Over the course of the last year many organisations have changed the way that they work to deal with the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ESR service was no different and in March 2020 the ‘COVID Resource Hub’ was launched on Discover Your ESR.
This proved to be very popular with organisations and their employees; pulling together numerous pieces of guidance covering the following areas:
- User Notices
- Information for ESR Leads
- Information for corporate teams
- Applicant Guidance
- Employee Guidance
- Manager Guidance
The success of the COVID Resource Hub has led to a review of the functional brochure material that the team has made available to users, and subsequently developed a new approach to these materials.
The launch of the ESR Hub – the new landing page for my.esr.nhs.uk last year has also meant that we can make these materials easily accessible in one place. The functional brochures have been redesigned following the same structure as the step by step guides on the COVID Resource Hub, designed to focus on the benefits to the organisation, manager and employee. The new functional marketing materials all comprise the following elements:
- Promotional Guide – This demonstrates the benefits of using a particular piece of functionality.
- Implementation Guide – This gives an overview of how to implement the functionality.
- Functional Guide – This explains the other elements of complimentary ESR functionality that can be used, introducing further benefits; for example; Management Plan functionality (within Manager Self Service) enables organisations to set, agree and review objectives agreed by a manager and employee. This functional guide is designed to give managers handy hints and tips and links to further guides.
All of these functional marketing materials can be found in one handy place on the ESR Hub. Simply go to Implementing ESR in the menu bar and you can select which area of ESR functionality you are looking for.
A full suite of Manager Self Service, ESR Learning Management and Online Payslip materials are already available, with other new functional marketing materials being added to the ESR Hub incrementally over the coming weeks and months – Employee Self Service will be available in July.
If you are interested in implementing ESR Learning Management, any aspect of Manager Self Service or Online Payslips, then accessing these new functional materials is a good starting point. Our regional ESR Functional Account Managers and Implementation Advisors will also able to provide you with the guidance and support you may need to get your change project off the ground.