Allocate opens up absence tracking to support the COVID-19 response with NHS organisations adding over 57,000 new healthcare professionals to HealthRoster in a matter of weeks

Live absence tracking data helps reveal the true picture of COVID-19 impact on staff availability

4th May 2020 – NHS organisations across the UK have added over 57,000 new staff to Allocate’s HealthRoster workforce technology platform after the company opened up free absence tracking to help provide better visibility of COVID-19 absence and to support automated centralised daily absence reporting to NHS England. The system, which already records the absence of over one million health and care workers as part of its core rostering functionality, is the largest source of daily operational absence data across the NHS.

Allocate were asked to support NHS England and NHS Trusts by quickly developing automated centralised daily reporting on absence. This was created in days and since late March NHS organisations absence data has been shared directly with NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Allocate’s solutions provide the most extensively used and timely source of NHS absence data. Fully interoperable with the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and SAP, data from Allocate feeds the UK’s national systems for payroll. Allocate’s solutions have typically tracked the absence of only those staff who are electronically rostered. Absence data for non-rostered staff has often been collected manually or in other ad hoc systems, or even in spreadsheets. This had made it difficult to gain an accurate, timely view of all staff locally; and made daily reporting to national bodies admin intensive.

The ability to add additional staff free of charge for six months enables NHS organisations to record absence for all staff groups. Accurately recording absence will continue to be one of the most vital functions for healthcare organisations as they respond to COVID-19 over the coming months. NHS organisations that moved to recording staff absence in HealthRoster gained immediate visibility of the COVID-19 impact on staff availability. Combined with the automated reporting this also provides NHS England with a bigger picture of data across provider organisations. Since opening up the system seven weeks ago 12% of the additional 57,000 staff have recorded that they are unavailable for work, providing local health services with much needed timely information on staff absence.

Nick Wilson, CEO, Allocate said, “Opening up absence reporting free of charge across all staff groups is one of a number of vital measures we have taken to support our customers. We have also implemented our e-rostering software for all staff groups across five Nightingale Hospitals in a matter of days, we have provided free training to over 220 NHS staff, as well as hundreds of health and care staff in Sweden and Australia. We are now working with our customers to help health and care organisations navigate the longer-term impact of COVID-19 on staff and how they manage, care for and deploy their people.”

Notes to editors

About Allocate Software

Allocate Software is a leading international provider of workforce and resource planning solutions, supporting the operational and administrative needs of healthcare, defence and maritime sectors.

In the health and care sector, Allocate is enabling the delivery of safe and effective care at optimal cost, by helping organisations to have the right people in the right place at the right time. With over 800 clients and over a million staff rostered daily, Allocate serves the largest public and private sector institutions around the world. Its Optima, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), platform including HealthRoster and HealthMedics, optimises the complex staffing requirements of large health and care organisations. Alongside automating sophisticated scheduling and ensuring accurate pay for staff that have complex pay rules, it is unique in providing additional benefits to improve the safety of staffing given changing patient needs, the management of contingent workforce, and the engagement of staff through the dedicated app. Optima is used to plan the working lives of one million staff across all workforce groups including doctors, nurses, therapists, care staff, operational staff and administrators.

Allocate Software is headquartered in the United Kingdom, with 600 employees, including over 190 in research, development and product management functions. It provides services and support to its international customer base through regional offices in the UK, Sweden, Germany and Australia.

www.allocatesoftware.co.uk