Combining Staff Group, Job Role, Area of Work and Occupation Code

For example, the fact that a staff nurse works in intensive care would not be identifiable using Occupation Codes as they do not provide enough detail, but it can be reported upon by reference to the Area of Work.

For example, a Medical Secretary working in Cardiology cannot be identified through Occupation Codes, but by using Job Role and Area of Work this provides enough detail to find more specific roles.

By using a number of different fields effectively, a more accurate, fuller and descriptive picture of the workforce can be created.  By using additional fields to look at pay scale and registration details for example, a full representation of a post and how it fits into the wider team can be created.  By looking at person level information such as age, ethnicity and gender, and linking this through to information on positions, a full account of the workforce can be generated and analysed.

Linking such information together can also help to error-check and audit data.  The more information that can be extracted, the easier it is to spot anomalies, such as a mismatch between Occupation Code and pay scale.

To check the number of Health Visitors, and to ensure that the correct data is held, a user could draw out more than just Job Role, Area of Work and Occupation Code.  By including registration details for example, users can check that those listed with a qualified Health Visitor Occupation Code also have the correct level of Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration.  By including information on pay scale, users can check that the employee is being paid at an appropriate level to reflect their qualification and status.  It would be expected that a qualified Health Visitor would be assigned to a Position with an appropriate Occupation Code, Area of Work, and pay scale code (Grade) at a qualified level of Agenda for Change band, and at a personal level have the relevant level of NMC registration.

A typical entry on ESR for a Health Visitor might contain the following information

If the example employee had a qualified nursing Occupation Code but didn’t hold the relevant qualification or was being paid at a lower Agenda for Change band, this could be highlighted as a potential error and investigated further.