The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is leading an NHS-led transformation programme to identify and deliver the future NHS workforce solution. The solution will build on the success of the current Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system in support of the NHS People Plan and the wider NHS workforce policies. The programme puts users and stakeholders at the heart of the future solution.
We’ll:
- support effective recruitment, retention and workforce planning within health and care
- provide workforce services that support the delivery of the NHS People Plan and other workforce policies
- maintain ongoing engagement and outcomes from the future of NHS HR and the Organisational Design (OD) programme
Progress to date
We have now completed the third and final discovery phase of the programme, and the primary care discovery phase. We are now finalising the pre-procurement activities before we start the procurement phase in summer 2022. The next phase will take some time but will enable us to find a supplier to work with to develop the future NHS workforce solution. We are aiming to award a contract to the successful supplier by the end of 2024.
Discovery 3.0: pre-procurement activities and requirements development
As part of this phase, we completed some pre-procurement activities to help support the procurement stage of the programme. This included using the findings from Discovery 1.0 and 2.0 and undertaking engagement exercises with users and stakeholders.
We completed a deep dive into the 7 functional areas and engaged with key strategic partners and stakeholders to identify the business needs associated with those functional areas. This has helped us identify, understand, refine and validate the user and business needs for the future NHS workforce solution. These will be key in the procurement stage of the programme which is due to start in summer 2022.
Primary care discovery
In parallel with Discovery 3.0 we completed a Primary Care Discovery to further explore the needs for a future NHS workforce solution in primary care, specifically General Practice. We engaged with a range of colleagues from across primary care via survey and online interviews and workshops to understand their needs. The findings of this discovery are now being reviewed.
The road ahead
When the discovery phases and pre-procurement activities of the programme are completed, we'll be able to start the procurement process.
Get engaged
Your views are valuable to us. We’re committed to putting users at the heart of the design of the future NHS workforce solution. We’ll be looking to engage as widely as we can to share information about the programme through a variety of channels.
We’ll be updating this page at key stages throughout the programme with our progress and will let you know how you can get involved.
You can receive updates by completing our online sign-up form.
Contact us
If you have a question or want to get in touch, you can email the programme team at: nhsbsa.esrdiscovery@nhs.net.
Existing NHSBSA ESR service
The NHSBSA ESR service team will continue to enhance the current ESR solution to improve the capability and user experience. They will continue to support organisations to maximise their use of this system. The enhancement process with ESR special interest groups and other stakeholder forums will continue as normal.