ESR Discovery – Your ESR, Your Vision

The NHSBSA has established a Transformation Programme for the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).  

The ESR Discovery is the first project in this programme, and provides users and stakeholders across the NHS with the opportunity to tell us about their experiences of ESR.  The feedback received will enable the NHSBSA to better understand what ESR stakeholders and users need from a workforce solution, and help to inform requirements for the wider ESR Transformation Programme. 

The Roadmap 

By summer 2024 it is anticipated that the Transformation Programme will have completed a procurement exercise – enabling a period of transition up to August 2025 (current contract expiry date). The timeline below indicates the key phases that the programme is expected to follow:   

The planned timeframes for the completion of the transformation activities will be informed by subsequent service design and implementation planning. 

The Vision 

The programme seeks to place users and stakeholders at the heart of ESR service design.  NHSBSA Workforce Services will: 

• support effective recruitment, retention and workforce planning within Health and Care; and
• provide workforce services that support delivery of the People Plan and other workforce policies (including outcomes from the Future HR and OD Programme).

Your ESR, Your Vision 

Over the course of a 4 month period the NHSBSA are undertaking the largest strategic user engagement and listening exercise since ESR was implemented, involving stakeholders from across the NHS in England and Wales being invited to engage with a team of researchers from Accenture (acting on behalf of NHSBSA Workforce Services).   

So far… 

• Over 12,300 NHS staff  have participated in an Employee Self Service (ESS) survey via the ESR Portal and direct survey link;
• Over 3,400 NHS Manager Self Service (MSS) users have participated in an MSS survey via the ESR Portal and direct survey link;
• 120 Directors and Deputy Directors of HR/Workforce/Heads of HR have participated in a senior stakeholder survey;
• 50 Strategic stakeholders and policy makers from NHS England, NHS Wales and regional networks have engaged with the researcher team via one to one interviews and focus groups. 

User input to the ESR Discovery project, at each appropriate stage is really important.  As we progress through the different stages of the Discovery, the NHS ESR regional teams will be making contact with a number of HRDs and ESR Leads to invite organisations and their employees to engage with the researcher team. 

An information page about the ESR Transformation Programme has been added to the ESR Hub, giving an overview of the ESR Transformation Programme and the roadmap timeline.  A separate FAQ page is also available via the ESR Hub to answer some of the more frequently asked questions from stakeholders and users. 

If you have a question about the ESR Transformation Programme/ESR Discovery project that is not answered in the FAQs you can contact the ESR Discovery project team via nhsbsa.esrdiscovery@nhs.net 

Regular updates about the project will be communicated via the ESR Hub and our usual ESR communication channels.