An interim COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport is now in beta testing to enable safe staff movements between NHS organisations

Enabling NHS staff movement to support the NHS response to coronavirus (COVID-19)

NHS staff undergo rigorous pre-employment checks before they begin work to ensure they are able to provide safe care for patients.

To support the COVID-19 response, staff movement between NHS organisations need to be swift and efficient, with evidence available that checks have been completed before staff move.

The new COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport provides a solid legal framework for staff and bank workers to be deployed into other NHS organisations and streamlines and speeds up the sharing of information, allowing staff to move promptly and with ease. The information is transferred securely by the staff member through their own smartphone, putting them in control.

Learn more about passporting in the NHS.

Staff will hold their own verified record of their digital identity, employment and clearance information on their own smartphone in a secure application.

NHS organisations will be able to:

Transfer key employment information simply and securely.
Use a single solution across substantive and bank staff.
Benefit from a tri-party licence between employer, worker and host which is embedded into the process of using the passport.

Where can the COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport help?

Here are a few example of where the COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport might help:

I am a community nurse employed by a community trust

I have agreed to be deployed into my local acute trust to support COVID-19 response. I need to be able to demonstrate my right to work in the acute trust.

I work in a laboratory in a hospital testing blood samples

My lab is temporarily closed. I am well and therefore can work in any other lab. I will need to demonstrate my NHS employment checks are in place to move to the neighbouring lab.

I am a respiratory physician

My services are urgently required at another hospital. I need to assure the staff there that I am cleared for work quickly.

Case studies

See real life case studies of how the COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport has been used during the pandemic

What information is held in the COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport credential?

A single core ‘credential’ has been defined to hold all the basic personal details about the staff member to be issued a passport credential including:

Name, date of birth, National Insurance number;
Photograph;
Basic details relating to employment checks – including DBS and right to work information;
Professional registration details (GMC/NMC/GDC/HPC) as applicable;
Basic details relating to current employment – including employing organisation, job role, staff group, department, start date (and fixed term end date, if appropriate), pay band, work email address, smartcard number; and,
Occupational Health clearance confirmation and any restrictions or reasonable adjustments required for the staff member.

Training and skills information is not yet included on the COVID19 Digital Staff Passport. Learn more about how an employee might provide information on training and skills.

Find out how a COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport can help you and your organisation

For Employers Learn about how you can provide your employees and bank workers with a COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport to support them when moving between NHS organisations

For Staff Learn about how your COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport gives you control of your information and can help you work at different NHS organisations when you agree to do so