‘Nationally transferable’ roles help health sector employers learn from the best in new role design

Health care employers can learn from the best in the design of new roles to help sustain improvements in waiting times, raise productivity and improve service quality, thanks to an innovative new resource from Skills for Health

The online library of ‘nationally transferable’ roles (NTRs) builds on the experience of hundreds of English NHS Trusts which have created successful new roles at associate professional grades, and higher levels, in response to the Reducing Waiting Times initiative. By converting these proven roles into a range of templates, with details of associated competences and learning and development requirements, the library helps employers replicate best practice in new role design. To date, 30 NTR templates – ranging from advanced and assistant practitioner to administrative and clerical roles -- have been added to the library. The majority focus on specialities known to have the greatest impact on reducing waiting times, such as orthopaedics, but further specialities will be added in the future. NTRs within the library include the Orthopaedic Advanced Practitioner, a community-based role which was successfully developed by Dudley PCT as part of a new Orthopaedic Assessment Service. Following introduction of the role, the PCT now only refers a quarter of orthopaedic patients to secondary care. Other successful advanced practitioner roles that have been converted into NTR templates include: • The Surgical Care Practitioner NTR, developed by Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Foundation Trust. By introducing the role, the Trust was able to reduce waiting times by running an 16 extra operating lists a week • The Hand Therapist Advanced Practitioner NTR, which helped reduce consultant waiting times at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust from 10 weeks to just two, while also delivering cost savings. • The Myocardial Perfusion Stress Testing NTR, which helped North Cumbria University Hospital NHS Trust reduce diagnostic waiting times from 72 weeks to between three to six weeks. As well as helping spread best practice in the design of new roles to raise productivity and improve service quality, the NTR templates also offer a range of associated benefits for patients, employers and employees: • Patients benefit from greater standardisation of service delivery, with staff employed in the NTRs working to an agreed set of skills and competences • Employers benefit from greater understanding of the skills, knowledge and competences they should expect from staff employed in NTRs • Staff employed in NTRs benefit from nationally transferable skills, competences and learning, leading to greater skills portability and improved career opportunities. ENDS Media contacts: Dominic Moody, Press & PR Manager Tel. 0117 910 3853, mobile 0776 818 8994 dominic.moody@skillsforhealth.org.uk Notes to editors 1. The Nationally Transferable Roles library can be viewed on the Skills for Health website at http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/nationally-transferable-roles 2. Case studies of new roles which have formed the basis for NTRs templates produced by Skills for Health are available on request. 3. Nationally Transferable Roles are defined as a named cluster of competences and related activities that is applicable, relevant and replicable across different geographic locations in the UK. An NTR may be either a whole job levelled to the Career Framework, eg advanced orthopaedic practitioner, or a subset of various jobs at different levels of the Career Framework. 4. Further analysis of the impact of NTRs is available in the Skills for Health report ‘Impact of Nationally Transferable Roles on Productivity – Building An Evidence Base’, available on the Skills for Health website at http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/nationally-transferable-roles 5. Skills for Health is the Sector Skills Council for the UK healthcare sector, encompassing the National Health Services, independent healthcare providers and voluntary organisations. It offers a range of proven tools, products and services to help employers deliver a skilled, flexible and productive workforce to improve health and health care. For further information, see www.skillsforhealth.org.uk