For action
End of emergency guidance 31 May 2023
The emergency guidance, which allowed Registration Authorities to use video calls to verify identities to create Care Identity Service (CIS) profiles came to an end last month.
All Registration Authorities have until the end of June 2023 to ensure that they are verifying and creating identities in one of the three following ways, using:
- Electronic Staff Record (ESR)
- Apply for Care ID
- In person, face-to-face meetings
To find out more about Apply for Care ID, view our website and watch our training videos.
Register for the Identity and Access Management Roadshow, 29 June 2023
We’ll be running the next RA roadshow on Thursday 29 June, 11:00 -12.30.
For information
ESR link now available in Care Identity Management
You can now use Care Identity Management to manage requests to create new users that have been raised in ESR.
You can:
- approve new user requests that have been raised in ESR
- reject a new user request and give a reason for the rejection
Where requests have been raised in ESR without a photo of the user, you can now add the photo in Care Identity Management.
Registration Authority Managers and Agents should start using Care Identity Management now.
Feature focus for Care Identity Management
We've decided to move to a monthly schedule for our Feature Focus sessions.
Feature Focus is a great opportunity for us to meet RAs and show you what we're working on, but as our current focus is on improving back-end functionality we won't have as much to show you for a while.
A monthly session will allow us to make the best use of the time you share with us so look out for new calendar invites soon. If you don't get an invite, please email [email protected].
Apply for Care ID – Online address check available, enabling 1 photo ID only
We have recently included an online address check as part of our service. Applicants that select this option will only need to provide one photo ID instead of two. Applicants that do not want to complete an online address check can still choose to use two photo ID and a capture a proof of address document.
For more information about this new feature, watch our demo videos of the applicant journey.
Introducing Series 9 smartcards
We will be introducing new smartcards into the estate over the coming months. These cards are standards-based and, over time, should offer some enhanced capabilities.
Being standards-based, there are certain principles that will need to be adopted. One of these is that the passcodes for the new cards will need to be between 6 and 8 digits, rather than the current 4 to 8 alpha numeric range.
To prepare for this change, a release of CIS will enforce all passcodes moving forward being 6 to 8 digits. This will affect existing smartcard users when they:
- receive a new smartcard and are asked to set a passcode
- lock their card and use self-service unlock
- lock their card and need to get assistance in unlocking their card
The precise date of this change will be communicated once final planning and development has been completed.
Decision to extend smartcard certificate expiries from 2 to 3 years
We know that certificate renewal activity takes time, and may even involve a user travelling to their remote RA. So, we’ve decided to extend smartcard certificate expiries to reduce:
- administrative burden for Registration Authorities
- time of travel for healthcare providers
- instances of lost access to national systems and patient data
This change has been agreed by all relevant technical and business authorities. We will arrange internal testing to ensure we do not hit any unforeseen issues, and then plan to make the change, subject to priorities.
We will communicate out via email, NHS Networks, and Slack, when we have a clear idea of timelines for this work.
Summary Care Record (SCR) and Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) access for pharmacists
During the COVID-19 pandemic, temporary smartcard positions were created to provide flexibility to approximately 19,000 pharmacists and over 3,500 pharmacy technicians.
Given the importance of this access, we are:
- working to create a national baseline role in the coming months which will allow pharmacy professionals access to the National Care Records Service (the successor to Summary Care Records application (SCRa) and EPS as soon as they become qualified
- seeking approval to extend the temporary C19 SCR and 5F positions until the end of January 2024. These enable locum pharmacists to move between pharmacies without needing to have a new position assigned each time.
Contact us
For more information on our work please visit our website or email [email protected].
