• Retired and peri-retired clinicians who have active registration on the General Medical Council (GMC) medical register and hold a licence to practice. Consultants also must be on the GMC’s specialist register.
• NHS providers of acute care within England

Presently, the scope does not extend to workforce cover for Primary Care, Community Care or Mental health services. The pilot will be evaluated with the view to extending the scope to other programmes, professions and grades.

Led by the Outpatient Recovery and Transformation Programme, NHS England, the initial phase of the NHS Emeritus pilot will run until the end of September 2024.

Clinicians who have expressed interest in the pilot and meet the criteria to join will be invited to register.

Once the necessary pre-employment checks have taken place, the clinician will be onboarded by NHS North of England Care System Support (NECS), the lead employing organisation. A profile will be created for the clinician within TempRE, a job matching platform, and the clinician will be provided with log in details.

TempRE is Liaison Workforce’s temporary workforce management platform that NHS Emeritus uses to match clinicians to clinical assignments, for booking and timesheet submission and authorisation.

Clinicians will receive digital notifications of assignments based on their speciality, sub-specialisms and interest in performing supporting professional activities, as nominated within their unique profile. Using the TempRE website or mii mobile-enabled app, clinicians can signal their interest and availability for assignments.

Providers sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NHS England and the lead employing organisation, NHS North of England Care System Support (NECS).

After signing the MOU, and onboarding to the TempRE cloud-based platform, providers can upload assignments of clinical activities that require cover remotely or in person on hospital sites. These activities include outpatient clinics, remote consultations, advice and guidance, clinical prioritisation, and diagnostic reporting. Providers may also use NHS Emeritus for supporting professional activities such as appraisal (consultant as appraiser), educational supervision and clinical supervision.

Providers are alerted once NHS Emeritus clinicians have nominated their availability to perform an assignment. Using TempRE, providers review the different profiles and compliance documents, and books the clinician of their choice.  Providers are responsible for providing local induction and arranging delivery of clinical activity with the clinician. Patients are booked by the provider in the normal way.

On completion of the assignment, the clinician submits an electronic timesheet for authorisation using the mii app. Clinicians can book confirmations of assignments, submit timesheets and view payslips using the mii app.

NHS Emeritus uses a lead employer model. This enables clinicians to be engaged under one contract with a lead employing organisation and undertake work for any NHS providers across England participating in the pilot. It also provides a central point of contact for clinicians for all HR, Payroll and Occupational Health matters.

The lead employing organisation is responsible for:

• All pre-employment checks
• Providing a Flexible Worker Contract to be agreed by all doctors participating in the pilot
• Providing Occupational Health service to doctors
• Ensuring completion of all Mandatory and Statutory Training (MaST) modules
• Holding the terms and conditions of service
• Providing the Designated Body function
• Providing the Responsible Officer, delivered by NHS Professionals
• Ensuring NHS Emeritus clinicians are remunerated for work undertaken as part of the pilot

The lead employing organisation for NHS Emeritus is NHS North of England Care System Support (NECS). NECS was originally set up in 2013 to meet the needs of NHS healthcare commissioners in the North East and North Cumbria. Since then, NECS has diversified and expanded the range of customers they serve, delivering support to health and social care systems locally, nationally, and internationally. NECS works closely with NHS England on a range of projects, including the NHS Emeritus initiative.

NECS Emeritus Support is a staffed service provided by the leading employing organisation. This team provides one-to-one support to clinicians with any aspect of joining and participation. This includes any help needed in completing pre-employment checks, accessing statutory and mandatory training and/or certificates, professional standards assurance and arranging the face-to-face ID and document checks with clinicians. This team are also on hand to help with any delays or queries around timesheet authorisation by provider trusts.

The NECS Emeritus Support team is available 9am – 5pm weekdays (excluding bank holidays) and can be contacted by email at: necsu.emeritus@nhs.net or by telephone on: 0191 217 2650.

The pilot has been commissioned to support the delivery of non-admitted, planned care, teaching and education. Providers of acute care can utilise NHS Emeritus to source cover for the following clinical activities:

• Advice and guidance
• Clinical prioritisation (including triage of referrals and prioritisation of waiting lists)
• Outpatient clinics – face-to-face (onsite)
• Outpatient clinics – video and telephone (onsite or remote)
• Clinical diagnostic work – diagnostic sessions and reporting
• Clinical session (onsite) – including elective operating sessions
• Appraisals (as appraiser)
• Clinical supervision
• Educational supervision
• Risk and governance
• Clinical Audit

The focus of the pilot is to enable providers of acute care to increase clinician capacity for outpatient recovery and transformation. The clinical assignments do not include cover for oncall shifts or responsibilities.

Consultants and SAS doctors can become members of NHS Emeritus and access the NECS Emeritus Support service at no cost. The costs of pre-employment checks are borne centrally by NHS England.

There is also no cost to NHS providers to use the TempRE platform to find suitable cover for their assignments. Providers are responsible for paying for the clinician’s’ time, based on payrates nominated in assignments. Providers will be responsible for any other operational costs relating to clinical activity, and for provision of any IT equipment and access requirements.

Providers nominate the rate of pay within assignments (hourly or sessional rate) in accordance with their locally agreed rates and policies.

For clinicians who do the major part of their clinical work for NHS Emeritus, NECS the lead employing organisation will support the revalidation process. As such, NECS will provide opportunities for appraisal through NHS Professionals, including the storage of CPD data via a digital platform, review of safety incidents (if any), and access to a qualified appraiser. It is the responsibility of the individual consultant or SAS doctor to collect a portfolio of evidence to show that they have maintained their skills.

If the clinician holds a contract of employment with an NHS Trust or a locum agency, then the Responsible Officer will be within the organisation where the majority of their work is performed.

In joining NHS Emeritus, clinicians in scope will be able to join either as a Pay As You Earn (PAYE) worker or as a director of a Limited Company. Under this arrangement, the company must be considered inside IR35. All earnings from assignments will be treated as earnings from employment, and subject to tax through PAYE.

Clinicians will not be able to register under Limited Partnership Agreements, through recruitment agencies or umbrella companies.

NHS England cannot advise on the implications of registering as a private limited company. Clinicians will be responsible for obtaining their own professional advice.

The following websites might be helpful sources of information:

• Working for yourself – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Set up a private limited company – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• NHS England » Working through intermediaries: IR35 update

Where a clinician satisfies the conditions set down by the law, they will be entitled to statutory sick pay at the prevailing rate in respect of any period of sickness or injury during an assignment.

As the pilot is limited in duration, there is no monetary allowance for CPD, nor paid study leave.

No. For legal jurisdiction reasons, you will not be able to undertake work from outside the UK.

If you have expressed an interest in joining, and meet the criteria, you will receive a unique link to access the Credentially platform to start your registration and pre-employment checks. As such you will be able to enter key information and upload essential documents remotely. The pre-employment checks includes a face-to-face ID and document check which must be completed in England – the NECS Emeritus Support team liaises with clinicians to arrange these. NHS Emeritus doctors must perform the clinical activities while in the UK.

This will depend on the NHS provider trust that you are undertaking the assignment for, and the nature of the assignment. As part of local induction, provider trusts will need to arrange access and guides for trust IT applications and equipment the NHS Emeritus doctor will need to undertake their duties, and any building access needed for onsite assignments.

The scheme supports flexible working. You can work as little, or as much, as you want. The reason behind the work being listed, for example, whether it is providing cover for annual leave, sickness, or a vacant post, will impact the duration of the assignment.

Mandatory and Statutory Training (MaST) requirements ensure organisations are able to stay compliant with relevant laws and regulations. Clinicians joining NHS Emeritus are required to achieve full compliance as part of pre-employment requirements as part of the registration process and in advance of performing any NHS Emeritus assignments.

Where you do not have evidence of completed training, you can complete any of the required online modules at: https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk/Component/Details/458587

Where role specific training is required, this can be arranged with an NHS provider by contacting NECS Emeritus Support:

Email: necsu.emeritus@nhs.net

Telephone: 0191 2172650

NHS Emeritus clinicians can claim a one-off payment of up to £400 (£100 per hour) for time spent achieving full MaST compliance. This is offered in recognition of the time commitment to achieve full compliance and can be claimed through timesheet submission to NECS, the lead employing organisation after completion of three NHS Emeritus assignments. Any further payment for time for local induction and training arranged by NHS providers of acute care, will be for consideration of the provider.

All candidates are subject to the same pre-employment process, and there are certain limitations to references that can be accepted. Three years’ worth of continuous references, including most recent employer, will be required. If there is a gap in employment references, a character reference must be provided.

Yes. A face-to-face ID and document check is a pre-employment requirement. This includes your right to work status.

Once you have uploaded the essential documentation on the Credentially platform as part of the registration process, you will receive an email from NECS Emeritus Support regarding arranging your face-to-face ID check and advising the documents you will need for this appointment.

The NECS Emeritus Support team will explore options, dependant on your postcode, to find a locality for the face-to-face ID check that is as close as possible. They will also assist you in organising the appointment so you can attend on a day, and at a time, that is convenient for you.

It is a legal and professional requirement that individual doctors hold adequate and appropriate clinical negligence indemnity cover. For work undertaken for NHS Trusts in England, you will be covered by the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST).

Doctors participating in the NHS Emeritus scheme are advised to maintain membership of a medical defence organisation (MDO), or other indemnity provider or insurer, to retain personal medico-legal cover and support in respect of activities and services not covered by CNST.

After completing an expression of interest, we will contact you to confirm your eligibility and provide information on registration and pre-employment checks. You will then receive an email from Credentially with a unique log-in, to commence registration and employment checks, accompanied by a guide to completing registration.

You can register for NHS Emeritus. However, please be aware, temporary registration by the General Medical Council ended on 13 March 2024. To practice after this temporary emergency registration has ended, you will need to restore your routine registration and/or licence to practise and your licence and/or registration must be fully restored to complete registration.

You will not be able to access the TempRE platform for available assignments or secure bookings, until you have completed registration.

Further information can be found here.

In order to successfully register for this pilot, you would have to restore your licence to practise in the first instance as that is one of the preliminary credentialling checks undertaken. The following guidance may be helpful:

Association of Medical Royal Colleges Return to Practice Guidance

NHSE | Returning to medicine | Health Careers

As a provider trust, your organisation will be responsible for:

• Submitting an expression of interest
• Executing the Memorandum of Understanding agreement with NHS England and NECS
• Completing an onboarding document provided by Liaison Workforce
• Completing onboarding to the TempRE platform, including staff training
• Entering details of assignments
• Nominating the rate of pay
• Selecting and booking NHS Emeritus doctors
• Providing the usual induction process and activities for clinical staff
• Providing any equipment, access and training required, including IT systems
• Providing the usual administrative support for clinical activity
  • Booking patient appointments in the usual way
  • Approving timesheets on the TempRE platform
  • Paying for clinician’s time for work performed, as cross-charged by the NECS, the lead employing organisation, within the agreed terms as set out in the Memorandum of Understanding

When a clinician nominates their availability to perform an assignment, authorised users of the TempRE platform from provider trusts will be able to view:

• General information: name, date of birth, gender, address.
• Contact information: email address and contact number.
• Membership information (e.g. GMC number).
• Documents (any documentation uploaded to the candidate profile prior to shift applications i.e. CV)
• Payment: Employment type (PAYE worker or Limited Company).

Assurance of the delivery of care that is high quality, effective and safe is vital. All appropriate pre-employment checks will be undertaken and approved, prior to a consultant or SAS doctor being confirmed and accepted onto the NHS Emeritus scheme. In addition, the lead employing organisation is responsible for ensuring that consultants and SAS doctors are compliant with MaST requirements and that this training is maintained and kept up to date. The lead employing organisation is also responsible for the ongoing assurance of professional standards, and robust processes and mechanisms are in place in relation to this.

Further information about pre-employment checks, Mandatory and Statutory Training (MaST) and professional standards are provided in the Memorandum of Understanding that exists between the lead employing organisation and NHS providers who wish to utilise the services of an NHS Emeritus doctor.

No. As an NHS England initiative, utilisation rates will be assessed nationally. Therefore, use of Emeritus clinicians should not be included in provider trusts’ monthly temporary staffing submissions.