E-rostering update

E-rostering (or Health Roster) is available for all Mersey Care staff and is used in different ways for different staff groups. It allows managers to plan future staffing, enable the service to meet demand and ensure the correct skill mix and staffing is available for patients and service users. It replaces the need for paper processes for annual leave, sickness absence, flexi working, TOIL etc. and can be managed with greater visibility and transparency. If there are gaps in real time or in the future, temporary staff can be booked directly to manage this. Gaps in service provision can be flagged via the online app to allow temporary staff to self-book from anywhere in the world.

Mersey Care is participating in the E-rostering NHSI levels of attainment programme and detailed information about the programme can be found here. A key milestone of the levels of attainment programme is for trusts receiving NHSEI funding to reach 100% of trust staff enrolled and using E-rostering. This is also part of NHS England’s long term plan. These are the Trust divisional percentages using E-roster.

These are some of the highlights of the programme.

We’re about to launch level three of four in the attainment programme, looking at capacity and demand in community nursing. This will support community nurses with automated planning and scheduling software which will bring a multitude of benefits including:

• Reducing the amount of clinical time spent on scheduling appointments
• Reducing travel time and expenditure
• Enabling demand and capacity modelling
• Meeting Lone Working Policy requirements
• Increasing assurance that service delivery is meeting the requirements and needs of patient demand
• Reduction in missed or delayed visits (and associated clinical incidents)
• Improved communications with patients and carers regarding visits.