NHS to get new online jobs platform

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is working to build a new jobs platform for use across the NHS, and it will be officially launched at the beginning of 2022.

The project to replace the previous platform, which has been in place since 2014, began in 2017, and responsibility for NHS Jobs was transferred to the NHSBSA in April 2018.

NHSBSA is working with digital transformation specialist Difrent to create the new platform. The project is currently in private beta stage and so far 6,000 organisations, including GPs and hospitals, are using the open-source platform to recruit new staff.

The platform is designed to provide an accessible experience for everyone using it, including non-English speakers and those with accessibility or assisted digital needs.

Darren Curry, chief digital and data officer at NHSSBA, said: “The people working within the NHS are its greatest asset. The immediate recovery, and future stability, of the service relies on recruiting the right people into the right roles easily and efficiently.

“We know NHS colleagues have been working under enormous pressure, increased by the pandemic, so by making it simpler for people, domestically and abroad, to apply for roles, and for recruiting managers to navigate the hiring process, we can help release some of the strain.

“With pleasing news coming through that record numbers of people are applying to study nursing and embark on a career in healthcare, we need to be ready to offer these people, and other applicants, a modern and efficient way to find, apply for and secure a career with the NHS.”

The partnership with Difrent, which continues a previous contract, will see the suppler provide the digital capability and capacity to deliver and launch the platform. The existing platform handles about 4.4 million applications for more than 375,000 roles within the NHS each year, and the new platform is intended to make it easier for those applying for jobs and employers.

Earlier this year, NHSBSA launched a digital strategy that includes designing services to meet user needs. It said: “To design services which do the hard work, so our users don’t have to, we must first understand the needs of our users – not just in the digital directorate, but across our whole organisation and beyond.

“Digital transformation means designing services based on user needs, making it easier for the citizen to do what they need to do, and reducing the cost for government to provide those services.”