NHS SCOTLAND
Shared Support Services Project
SSTS – Option Appraisal Commissioned for eRostering Solution
1. Background
In NHS Scotland there are four national workforce systems; these are Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), Scottish Standard Time System (SSTS), Electronic Employee Support System (eESS), and ePayroll. All of these systems are national systems provided to NHS Scotland under a National IT Services contract between National Services Scotland (NSS) and ATOS. All except eESS are Crown Copyright.
2. Challenges
A key challenge set-out in NHS Scotland Boards Draft Strategic Plans 2014-2024 is that cash releasing savings have to be achieved in each of the next three years. Aligning this to the 20:20 vision of safe, patient centred care has resulted in a number of NHS Scotland Boards showing interest in the acquisition of an eRostering system as part of their commitment to these aims. Three NHS Scotland Boards have procured the Allocate Healthroster application.
While, the Allocate Healthroster system has been successfully deployed in a number of NHS Trusts in England, a number of challenges have arisen in the three NHS Scotland boards deployment around linking the Allocate Healthroster application with the NHSS national suite of Workforce Management Applications. In particular linking to SSTS, the application that validates staff rotas and hours worked across NHSS in line with Scottish Government Health Directorates policy and the Working Time Directive before providing the data to the national ePayroll application.
A review of the strategic fit of SSTS with the aims and needs of NHS Scotland Boards, including options and their appraisal is needed.
3. Solution
To address the need for strategic review of SSTS, including the integration challenges presented by the pilot NHS Scotland boards’ implementation of Healthroster, the SSTS/eRostering Management Group have commissioned two separate assignments to investigate further the potential options and associated costs. These are:
1. To build an Interface with Allocate
o Phase A: Build an Interface to integrate with Healthroster – that meets the minimum integration requirements
o Phase B: Develop the interface generically to deliver full integration with Healthroster or any equivalent system (Note: it is expected that the result from Phase A will help define the specification for Phase B).
2. An options appraisal document is prepared that sets out all their options, with their associated costs, risks and benefits.
o Do Nothing
o Modernise/upgrade SSTS to include eRostering capabilities
o Integration of Allocate’s Healthroster system with NHSS national SSTS application (Phase A basic integration and Phase B full generic integration)
o Interface Allocate’s Healthroster System directly into ePayroll
o Development of a Hybrid solution
The outcome of this document will be shared with key stakeholders and governance groups to help inform strategic direction in this key workforce system area.
Robert MacKinnon Margo McGurk
Chair, SSTS/eRostering Management Group Chair, Payroll, Expenses & SSTS Focus Group
27th March 2015
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