Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the replacement system for the NHS Electronic Staff Record will be required to record whether (a) clinicians have condition-specific specialisations such as a Parkinson’s Specialist Nurse and (b) roles are speciality-specific such as neuro physiotherapist.

National Health Service provider trusts are required to provide core workforce data to NHS England and the Department based on definitions set out in the National Workforce Data Set (NWD). The NWD is kept under review to ensure it is kept up to date while the burden on trusts of data collection remains proportionate.

The replacement system for the NHS Electronic staff Record (ESR), the Future NHS Workforce System (FWS) will make it easier to record the information that aligns with NHS organisational needs, including the skills and specialisms of staff. NHS England is currently working with the NHS Business Services Authority to make the best use of the data capture ability of the new system.

There is not a hard deadline for deciding what will be recorded on the FWS. As with ESR, new fields will be able to be added to meet the changing requirements of trusts and of national workforce planning. We will though need to continue to work with trusts to ensure that the data we require them to capture is both useful, proportionate and aligned with operational needs.