Date: 25 August 2023
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals are the first NHS trust to test the connection to the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).
ESR is the workforce management solution for the NHS in England and Wales.
Most NHS employees have a record on ESR.
An ESR record features employment information, such as job role, personal details, pre-employment checks, training information and occupational health status.
ESR is also the system through which most NHS staff are paid.
The NHS DSP service connects the passport of each registered NHS employee to their staff record in ESR, ensuring the credential data is up to date in both systems.
Read more about the credentials available in the NHS DSP.
Testing the connection between the NHS DSP and ESR in the place where it will be used, i.e. an NHS trust's IT network, is vital.
Any issues will be highlighted and resolved, meaning the trusts involved in Wave 1 will experience a smoother registration process.
The test was in two parts, to reflect the two staff groups within scope of the NHS DSP:
Read more about the two staff groups.
Postgraduate Doctor in Training test
Shelley Hogan, the Medical HR Manager at Sheffield (and NHS DSP Implementation Lead) used the Employer portal to set up a record for an employee.
As this was a live test with real ESR data, Shelley recruited a Postgraduate Doctor in Training to be part of the process.
Using their smart phone, the doctor was asked to set up a digital identity and request access to the Sheffield NHS DSP.
Temporary Mover test
Shelley repeated the initial process on the Employer portal, with a record set up for an NHS employee planning to complete a temporary move between NHS trusts.
ESR connection test
When registered with the NHS DSP, the Recruitment team can then connect the record of each employee to ESR.
The testing was successful for laptop usage for the Temporary Mover and highlighted improvements required to smart phone based processes for the Postgraduate Doctor in Training.
With product development still in progress, the NHS DSP has scheduled an update to roll-out the improvements prior to the Wave 1 launch.
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals were the first NHS trust to test the connection to the Employee Staff Record