Resident Doctors: Rota Code of Practice Compliance Data Collection

The Resident Doctors Rota Code of Practice conditions are a component of the Terms and Conditions of Employment of all Resident Doctors. The Code of Practice provides timescales that the NHS must adhere to when providing work schedules and roster details to resident doctors. NHS England collected data for compliance monitoring until collection ceased in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. In April 2024, the NHS Chief Executive made a commitment to employers and resident doctors. This commitment stated that NHS England would re-introduce compliance monitoring and management to provide assurance that the NHS is meeting its obligations under employment contracts. This included providing information in line with the specified timescales and seeking improvements where the conditions are not being met. 

The intention of this data collection is to re-introduce the measurement of compliance with the Rota Code of Practice conditions. The data will enable NHS England to work collaboratively with employers to identify difficulties that prevent compliance and to facilitate support that could enable improvements in compliance across the NHS in England.  

This return should be completed by ALL foundation trusts and NHS trusts who employ resident doctors. Trusts that employ resident doctors must provide data relating to all resident doctors contractually employed by them, for whom they directly provide rota information. Lead employers are required to provide data on behalf of all NHS trusts forming the lead employer collaboration for whom they provide rota information. This data will be collected via the NHS England web-based system, Data Collection Framework (DCF).

A pilot data collection will launch in March 2025. The data collection reporting will be based around rotations. Registered data submitters will have access to the exact dates in the Data Collections Framework.

A link to the Data Provision Notice will be added to this page once published.