Programme news
Recording Apprentices in ESR
Following the introduction of the Apprenticeship Extra Information Type (EIT) which was implemented into ESR in Release 39 in June 2018, the guidance on recording Apprentices in ESR has been revised.
Previously organisations were advised to use the three specific Apprentice Job Roles which were available within the Additional Clinical Services, Administrative & Clerical and Estates & Ancillary staff groups as this was the only way to identify an Apprentice in ESR (with the exception of the ‘H’ NI Category for apprentices under 25).
The Workforce Information Review Group agreed that the implementation of the Apprenticeship EIT was an opportunity to enable a more specific Job Role to be recorded which will then be used to identify the role that the Apprentice is actually undertaking for the duration of their Apprenticeship, rather than to simply indicate that they are an Apprentice.
E.g. An Apprentice Health Care Assistant would have previously been recorded with a Job Role of ‘Additional Clinical Services | Apprentice’ but should now be recorded with a Job Role of ‘Additional Clinical Services | Healthcare Assistant’ and the Apprenticeship EIT should be populated with a Framework/Standard of ‘Health - Clinical Healthcare Support’
Following release of the new EIT, the Apprentice Job Roles were retired as part of National Workforce Dataset (NWD 3.0) in March 2019 and are now invalid.
As a result, organisations are required to amend the assignment details of employees currently associated with these invalid Job Role values by either moving the employee to a new position or requesting a change of Staff Group/Job Role using the Mass Update facility available via SR.
Request a New Service > AC > Mass Updates > Workstructures > Mass Update Job Role
Please note: Assignments currently identified with an Apprentice Job Role should then recorded via the Apprenticeship Extra Information (EIT). It is important that Apprentice Type is complete for all Apprenticeship EIT’ to identify New or Existing employees undertaking an Apprenticeship.
Data Quality
To assist organisations in identifying employees who still hold the retired Job Roles of ‘Apprentice’ an enhancement has been made to the ESR Business Intelligence Data Quality Dashboard Job Role validation which now identifies Invalid Job Roles as well as NULL values.
Reporting
A number of Apprenticeship analyses have been added to national content in BI to assist organisations in monitoring Apprentices.
This includes an Apprenticeship detail and summary pages available within the Staff In Post & Learning Administration Dashboards which provides high level information of employees undertaking Apprenticeships.
NB: The list of Frameworks/Standards and EPA Centres has recently been reviewed and changes to the LOVs will be implemented in the near future.
For further information on how the new Apprenticeship functionality has positively impacted processes in Wales please click here.
Discover Your ESR - A Trust’s story…
On the 1st November 2018, we launched our new strategic tool ‘Discover Your ESR’. 
This web based tool is designed primarily for NHS leadership teams and decision makers, providing a valuable resource for strategic and operational leaders to gain greater understanding of the overall potential of the ESR solution. The tool uniquely presents the ESR solution in a business driven format, segmented into current strategic workforce and operational business challenges.
Since its release, almost 65,000 unique visitors have accessed the tool. The National Landscape section that outlines how the ESR solution can support organisations in addressing key national directives is a key section of the tool for our users. Split into strategic workforce issues around a wheel, the most visited areas of the tool at the moment are Workforce Planning, Financial Controls and Skilled Workforce. Areas of particular interest also include the ‘Financial Business Case’ section, which provides a breakdown of cost and service improvements available, and ‘Start a Conversation’ sections, where it guides the user to undertake activities within their own organisation that then help to define their journey to embedding ESR in to their workforce strategy.
The tool has been used by our Regional Account Manager and Functional Advisor teams whilst assessing each organisation’s usage of ESR, but the tool can be used as a standalone resource to help Workforce Directors develop their knowledge of ESR as a strategic tool.
One Trust in the South East region has harnessed the opportunity to learn more by using the Discover Your ESR tool to evaluate the organisations usage, with a view to ensure it fully maximises the system to the best possible effect. Here is their story…
South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Sally Spencer, Workforce Information and Planning Manager and Nicky Burgess, Workforce Information and Planning Officer.
The launch of ‘Discover your ESR’ provided us with the perfect opportunity to investigate ways of optimising our use of ESR. Using the questions provided in the Executive Summary for each of the 7 challenges, a RAG rated spreadsheet has been created and a member of the workforce team allocated a business area. We have independently reviewed these, looked at the questions and assigned a red or amber status.
This enables us to put each of these under a high level of scrutiny and identify the areas for improvement.
Leads have been appointed and have been allocated a specific programme to assume responsibility, such as our HR Transformation lead who is applying our values (Assuming Responsibility and Striving for Continuous Improvement) in collaboration with this helpful tool.
We are planning to us the tools available within Discover your ESR to help develop better processes on the back of reading the Lord Carter paper in the National landscape section. The Operational Alignment section in each segment, or business challenge, contains some fantastic pointers to help us with our senior team conversations and the Financial Business Case section has invaluable information that can be injected into an effective business case.
We look forward to seeing the outcome of this project and to fully realise the benefits ESR can offer to our organisation.
It’s great to see how one organisation is fully embracing the potential in the Discover your ESR tool and we look forward to hearing more about their project in the future and sharing that with you.
Have you used the Discover your ESR tool yet? www.discover.esr.nhs.uk
For further information about the tool or if you would like to arrange a demo for your organisation or regional SIG group, please contact your regional NHS ESR Functional Account Manager.
Sad to say goodbye to National User Group Chair
In February the NHS ESR Central Team said a sad goodbye to Chris Heward, who has been National User Group chair since 2009. Chris is retiring in May, so has stepped down from the role he has held for the past ten years. At the recent joint National SIG event Paul Spooner, ESR Programme Director, took the opportunity to thank Chris for his support and championship of ESR for so many years.
As Paul commented, the success of ESR has relied on a close working relationship and collaboration with users of the service. Chris has led by example during his stewardship as Chair of the National User Group.
An informal farewell and retirement celebration followed the meeting and glasses were raised to help Chris celebrate his forthcoming retirement.
NHS Streamlining - Do you use ESR effectively?
In April the NHS BSA ESR team partnered with NHS Employers to showcase NHS Streamlining.
The aim of the week long campaign was to share good practice and inspire organisations to adopt streamlining to release efficiencies and improve staff experience as they move around the NHS.
The week was packed full of events and activities including a day dedicated to demonstrate how ESR is enabling efficient streamlining.
With new resources, including a streamlining infographic, a brand new podcast, new case studies and a webinar, the aim of the day was to capture the interest of organisations and STPs who are just embarking upon their streamlining journey, and provide an insight to how ESR is integral to successful streamlining projects.
The podcast focuses on the North West Streamlining Programme and how they have been working collaboratively with the ESR team to successfully achieve the regions streamlining aims and objectives, and how it’s also been instrumental in further development of ESR functionality - that not only supports streamlining but also benefits all ESR users.
Our streamlining webinar; Adopt and Configure Your ESR to enable efficient streamlining was very popular with 265 participants keen to hear from our guest presenters from North Central London STP and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust. The webinar explained how ESR supports the National Streamlining Programme and its principles; demonstrated ESR’ best practice 'New Starter Journey’ and highlighted key ESR functionality. Our guest presenters also explained how they have adopted ESR methodology both as a collaborative and/or single Trust approach to fully maximise their ESR solution with streamlining in mind - enabling them to realise the true benefits to their organisation, workforce and their STP region.
Paul Spooner, ESR Programme Director comments:
It is great to see how NHSBSA Workforce Systems are being recognised as delivering tangible benefits to NHS employees and employers. Improving the employee experience – by facilitating the transfer of key employment data between employments - remains a key enabler for the NHS to secure the right resource in the right place at the right time. Additionally, removing the need for duplication of data input and/or induction training directly delivers productivity and efficiency improvements for employers.
If you want to know more about how ESR can support your streamlining objectives, improve HR processes and speed up on-boarding for new employees, please contact your NHS ESR Regional Functional Account Manager
NHS Workforce maximising ESR
Since the introduction of the MyESR portal in 2017, NHS organisations and employees have transformed the way they use the ESR solution.
As a national Workforce Service, the ESR team monitors how the system is used so as to feed this back in to both return on investment reviews and the user-led design of the system. In turn, this ensures continuous improvements can be delivered in an agile manner.
From the data detailed below it is clear testament to how NHS employers and employees are embracing the ESR technology.
Headline growth over the period April 18 – March 19:
- 69% increase in unique portal users (over 1.19m employees as at March 19);
- Over 725k employee self-service users accessed ESR in March 19 – a 42% increase from March 18
- 40% of employees access their payslip online only – a 90% increase from March 18;
- This equates to over 789k NHS employees no longer receiving paper payslips – releasing cost savings, providing a more secure means of access to payslips and supporting the environmental agenda.
- 106% growth in MyESR App average usage (Jan-Dec 2018 date range)
