One Year On – Isle of Wight and Portsmouth Shared Rostering Service
Summary
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust created a shared rostering service in November 2024 to strengthen workforce visibility, operational support and alignment across both organisations. Since then, one integrated team has supported managers while delivering system alignment, improved governance and major developments including Team Based Rostering, Medical Rostering and enhanced Power BI reporting. The programme has also strengthened training, standardised ways of working, improved oversight of safe staffing and temporary workforce activity, and created a more consistent and responsive service across both organisations.
The Challenge
Bringing two rostering teams together across Isle of Wight and Portsmouth required significant organisational, cultural and technical alignment. The service first had to build shared ways of working, review tasks, processes and systems, and engage widely with People Services, corporate teams, clinical leaders and Optima users to shape a single future model while carefully managing disruption through phased change and regular communication.
This included aligning and upgrading two Optima systems, standardising reference data, roles and profiles, cleansing rosters and temporary worker records, introducing automation and payroll improvements, supporting major staff transfers, strengthening training, governance and communications, aligning roster templates to budgets, expanding Team Based Rostering to 38 wards, and launching Medical Rostering for Resident Doctors while maintaining day-to-day operational support.
The Solution
The shared rostering service was built through a phased, collaborative approach that brought Isle of Wight and Portsmouth into one operational model while maintaining support to managers and services. The team aligned priorities, reviewed roles and processes, standardised ways of working, and worked closely with corporate teams, clinical leaders and Optima users to design a more consistent, resilient and responsive service.
Delivery focused on aligning and upgrading both Optima systems, resetting roles and profiles, cleansing data, improving payroll and automation processes, strengthening governance, communications and training, supporting staff transfers, and expanding Team Based Rostering and Medical Rostering. Alongside this, the service introduced improved reporting through Power BI dashboards, invested in new team capability, and created the foundations for better oversight, safer staffing and faster, higher-quality support.
Results & Next Steps
One year on, the shared rostering service has delivered measurable improvements in consistency, visibility and performance across both organisations. System alignment has improved the quality and speed of support, strengthened oversight, and given managers better access to workforce, temporary staffing, absence, safe staffing and rostering data through Power BI dashboards.
Key improvements include reducing 3.5 million owed hours to zero, halving unfilled duties, increasing medical roster visibility, improving SafeCare compliance to over 90%, reducing oversight red KPIs to one, and seeing more than half of Team Based Rostering wards populated through staff requests. Next steps focus on completing full system alignment, extending Medical Rostering, embedding consistent use of Team Based Rostering, continuing workforce development, and using data-led insight to further improve service quality and operational decision-making.
