- Conference
- 2003 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 1 December 2002
- Decision
- Carried
This Conference notes that, as part of its National Shared Services Initiative. The Department of Health is in the process of developing a new national payroll and electronic staff records system (ESR). This new system is intended to replace existing payroll and staff records systems currently used by all NHS employers and so manage and process payroll and records information for all staff through a single national system.
This conference is extremely concerned about the implications of this initiative. In particular, given the Government’s track record on major IT developments, we are concerned about the reliability of the system itself and the consequences for members and all NHS staff should the system fail for any reason. Further, members need to know what information the system will hold and need to know what safeguards are in place to guarantee accuracy, reliability, confidentiality, security etc.
We therefore call on the Service Group Executive to:
1)Press the DoH to postpone the implementation of this initiative in any Trust until adequate safeguards and guarantees have been secured on the above concerns;
2)Develop and maintain meaningful dialogue with the DoH to seek to protect members’ interests.