www.ewin.northwest.nhs.uk/

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The Electronic Staff Record(ESR) is the integrated HRand Payroll system across thewhole of the NHS in Englandand Wales (with the exceptionof two organisations). The Transforming Community Services(TCS) programme supports the visionof the Government’s White Paper,‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating theNHS’, to put patients at the heart ofthe NHS, and provide them withaccountability, more choice and bettercontrol over their care. TCS is key tothe Quality, Innovation, Productivityand Prevention (QIPP) agenda, which iscrucial to achieving the efficiency savings set out in the White Paper,whilst continuing to innovate, deliverhigh quality and increase the focus onprevention and supported self care.TCS is working closely with theStrategic Health Authorities (SHAs) toensure that Primary Care Trusts (PCTs)separate commissioning of servicesfrom provision, commencing April2011, as smoothly and as effectively aspossible.

However, TCS has a significant impacton ESR in relation to the movement oflarge numbers of employees’ recordsand data. Organisations are currentlyplanning and preparing for thechanges that are required and thisguidance should help in providing anunderstanding of what the changesmean for employee records held on ESR.

CURRENT SITUATION Many organisations will have nowundertaken the Transfer of Undertakings(Protection of Employment) (TUPE)process to transfer employees to theirnew receiving organisations in linewith the deadline of 1st April 2011.However, for many organisations,there are significant numbers ofemployees involved and the process formanaging these movements in ESR canbe extremely time-consuming.

This is because ESR has functionalityavailable to enable the transfer of aPortable Data Set (PDS) of informationaround an employee as part of theLeaver / New Hire Process. This isknown as Inter Authority Transfer(IAT). However, IAT cannot be undertaken en-masse and therefore, ifthis is the option chosen to transfereach member of staff affected by theTUPE transfer, then it has to be managed on an individual basis. Assuch, the NHS & McKesson CentralTeam recommends that IAT’s are onlyundertaken where less than 100members of staff are trans-ferring.

As an alternative solution to thisprocess,McKesson, as the ESR SystemSupplier, have provided facilities tomanage the demerging of organisationswithin ESR. The definition of aDemerge is where a ‘Source’Employing Authority (EA) sheds part orparts of its organisation and relatedassignments to become part of a separate ‘Target’ Employing Authority.

McKesson has developed automatedprocesses for the technical demergethat require minimal intervention bythe organisations involved. However,demerge is a complex process andrequires considerable preparatorywork by the Source and TargetEmploying Authorities, with a lead intime of up to six months. Failure toeffectively prepare for the demergeprocess could prevent the technicaldemerge taking place which is why theprocess is carefully managed and monitored, with three ReadinessAssessments throughout the lifecycleof the project being undertaken andreviewed.

TRANSFORMING COMMUNITYSERVICES (TCS)

& THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ESR

A demerge (from an ESR perspective) canbe defined as the complete transfer of a group of employees fromone EA to another (normally under TUPEregulations). This will be a completetransfer of employees and will result inthe complete removal of their recordsfrom the Source EA.

There is a known requirement toincrease the number of ESR demergeevents currently available to the NHS,with approximately 250 demerge eventsbeing required across NHS England.Consequently, a demerge proposal hasbeen developed by McKesson, to accommodate these additional demergeevents, and this proposal has been submitted as part of a funding request tothe Department of Health, to identify ifthe costs associated with this activity canbe centrally funded. At this time, this proposal is still under consideration andwe are awaiting a decision on the funding request submitted to theDepartment of Health (DH).

The NHS Central Team can confirm thatall efforts are being made to progressthis request, and an update will be provided as soon as possible, no laterthan Friday 13th May 2011.

Therefore, in the interim period untilemployee records can be transferred bythe demerge process, organisations areadvised to create a “Soft Split” to reflectthe transition, without the records physically being transferred in ESR.

THE SOFT SPLIT PERIOD

A Soft Split is where the source organisationis restructured at a local level based onyour TCS requirements. This requires setting up separate OrganisationalStructures, Payrolls and General Ledgersso that the new organisation can work asa “pseudo” Employing Authority or legalentity until any technical demerge of thedata takes place in the future. The softsplit will also manage the periodbetween the 1st April 2011 and the

actual date of the Demerge and much ofthe work required to undertake a softsplit is a pre-requisite for the Demergeprocess to take place.

The NHS Central Team have recommendedthat the all organisations work to ensurethat a “soft split” is completed by theend of March 2011 to allow EmployingAuthorities to go into the new financialyear with appropriate separation inplace, as per their TCS plans. This meansestablishing new organisational hierarchies, so that the respective receiving organisations and theiremployees can be clearly identified withthe work structures hierarchy on ESR.

In addition, new payrolls should beestablished for these new hierarchies sothat they can be placed on a separatepayroll until the demerge takes place. Ifapplicable, general ledger feeds can beamended for the period of the soft splitand until the demerge takes place sothat costings can be transferred to thereceiving organisation through ESR andthe General Ledger.

There are many other considerations tobe aware of during the period of the softsplit, including Access to employee dataduring this period, Board and other KeyPerformance Indicator Reporting,Recruitment processes, Management oftraining records, Management of SystemAccess and Registration Authority implications etc.

Many of these considerations have been provided within the slides for fourworkshops that have provided to NWUsers of ESR, to enable organisations toprepare for Transforming CommunityServices and the Implications for the ESRsystem.

THE DEMERGE PROCESS &ESR REFLECTING THE TCSLANDSCAPE

As previously stated, we are currentlyawaiting a decision by the Departmentof Health on the funding request submitted

for the additional 250 demerge eventsthat are required across NHS England.Consequently, some organisations havedecided to undertake individual Leavers/New Hires and Inter Authority Transfersto transfer the employee records.

Organisations can still continue to usethis process if they have the resources tomanage this method. If you are considering opting to use IAT for transfers exceeding 100 staff, thenorganisations are encouraged to raise aService Request via Remedy to informMcKesson of this activitiy. This will allowMcKesson teams to provide suitableguidance and support for your organisa-tion through the IAT process.

Organisations can be assured that NHSNorth West has escalated the concernswith regards to the time it is taking toconfirm when the additional demergeevents will be available. As soon as thereis further information / timescales ofwhen organisations within the NorthWest will be issued with a demerge slot,further communication will be issuedwhich will include:

• Details of further workshops toenable organisations to prepare forthe Demerge process.

• Requests for updates on current stateof readiness to prepare for theDemerge, in line with the ReadinessAssessment Criteria as outlined byMcKesson in the Demerge UserGuide.

Furthermore, following a collation of lessons learnt from organisations thathave previously been through theDemerge process in the North West,organisations need to consider that oncethe demerge has taken place, it is expectedthat they will need to undertake cleansing of their work structures organisational hierarchies and employeedata to enable improved reportinggoing forward. Further informationaround other lessons learnt around theDemerge process can be found in theDemerge Lessons Learnt Guide(23/02/11).

Bauer Il Palazzo

www.ewin.northwest.nhs.uk/

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EWIN REFLECTING THE TCS CHANGES

We are currently aware that the DataWarehouse, and consequently eWinand iView, do not reflect the changesthat TCS has made to ESR, during theperiod of the Soft Split.

However, as of 9th May, a solution hasbeen identified which will require allorganisations to update ESR to reflectthe Target organisations, as a matter ofurgency. This has been communicatedthrough a User Notice (UN1395) andorganisations are required to update anewly created field in ESR entitled“Target Organisation”.

The “Target Organisation” field will need to be populated by ALLorganisations, whether or not theyhave records within a “soft split” scenario and affected by TCS.Organisations will need to enter theirCRS Organisation NACS Code (e.g. 5JXfor Bury PCT) at the highest appropriatelevel(s) within their ESR WorkStructures hierarchy. Once this fieldhas been populated, the data will thenbe cascaded down to assignment levelrecords within the Data Warehouse toenable appropriate reporting.

If a soft-split has been undertaken,then you will need to enter two ormore codes as appropriate for thenumber of organisational changes thathave been undertaken. However, anyorganisation without a soft-split andunaffected by TCS will only need toenter their own code into their top-level organisation of the workstructures hierarchy.

The intention is to deploy the new“Target Organisation” field into ESR asa matter of urgency, with the changesexpected to be released into ESR forw/c 16th May. Organisations will thenneed to populate the field prior to thedata extract from ESR being takenafter midnight on the 31st May 2011.This will ensure that the data loadedinto the Data Warehouse for April(which will be available on Monday

13th June) will illustrate those recordsaffected by the ‘soft-split’ and TCSorganisational changes. As a result ofthis, eWin & iView will reflect the transition as a result of TCS from theApril Data Warehouse Updateonwards.

A further User Notice will be issuedwhen the release date for the new field is confirmed. For furtherinformation around the actions thatare required, please refer to UserNotice 1395.

USEFUL TOOLS/ACTIVITIES

1. Project Governance: Consider themanagement of the changes to ESRas a programme of work, with keystakeholders involved, includingExecutive Ownership, across theSource & Target / ReceivingOrganisations.

2. Processes: consider how processwill work / need to change for thesoft split period, pre-demerge andpost demerge.

3. Communication: Ensure all stakeholders are involved including,but not limited to:

a. HR, Recruitment, Workforce, WorkStructures & Reporting Users

b. Finance

c. Payroll

d. Learning & Development

e. Self Service Users

f. Registration Authority Leads

g. Informatics

h. Audit

i. Information Governance

j. Staff Side

USEFUL LINKS/RESOURCES

Documentation: There is a significantamount of guidance material to support organisations in preparing forthe Soft Split & Demerge whichincludes:

a. The Demerge User Guide

b. Presentations from the NWWorkshops

c. Frequently Asked Questions

d. Project Plans

e. Lessons Learnt

f. Confidentiality Agreements

g. List of organisations changes acrossthe NW

h. Advice for Informatics

i. Guidance for how to manage theUser Identity Manager Interfacewith TCS.

j. User Notice 1395: Urgent Actionsrequired on ESR to enable Nationallevel reporting.

CONTACT FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information regarding ESRwithin the North West, then pleasecontact Sue Hodkinson, Strategic ESRAccount Manager Lead at NHS NorthWest, on sue.hodkinson@nhs.net.

Bauer Il Palazzo

www.ewin.northwest.nhs.uk/

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