Rooster

1. Purpose

This procedure sets out how Ealing Park Health Centre uses Rooster to plan and check the clinical rota, on-call cover, leave and absence; how staff request leave and swap sessions; and how the practice fills gaps by offering sessions to colleagues. Its aim is that every working day has the clinical cover the practice expects, with on-call always staffed, and that changes are recorded consistently by everyone.

2. Scope

In scope: the GP rota and on-call cover; recording annual leave, study leave, meetings, unplanned absence and non-clinical sessions; the weekly check against SystmOne and the daily leave sync from Avensure; leave requests and decisions; swaps between colleagues; offering sessions to colleagues to fill gaps; student teaching; recurring commitments such as PCN meetings and tutorials; and the weekly on-call message.

Out of scope: reception and nursing rotas; appointment booking (which remains in SystmOne); locum booking through agencies; and leave entitlement, balances and HR absence records, which remain in Avensure until the practice formally decides otherwise (see section 9).

3. Roles and responsibilities

4. Definitions

5. Getting into Rooster

1. Rooster is a website: roosterrota.co.uk. Its data is held in one database hosted in the United Kingdom, so everyone sees the same, up-to-date rota on any device.
2. Staff join by invitation only. An admin sends the invite from Admin → Users; the link works once and lasts seven days. The person checks their details, agrees to the staff notice and chooses a password.
3. Sign in with your NHS email and password. A forgotten password is reset with the link on the sign-in screen; a reset email is sent to the account's own address.
4. On a phone, open the site in Safari or Chrome and choose Add to Home Screen; it then opens like an app. When a new version is released, a bar offers Reload.
5. Tapping your initials (top right) opens Chats; profile & sign out is at the top of Chats. The bell turns red with a count when something needs your attention.
6. Admins who are also on the rota choose Just me or Admin view. It is one account; the switch changes what is shown, not what the person may do.
7. Most admin tasks are designed for a computer. Several Admin tabs are hidden on a phone.

6. Procedures

6.1 Weekly update (custodian, weekly)

1. Leave arrives automatically. Avensure is read every morning at 06:10. To bring it in sooner (after approving a batch, for example) press Admin → Weekly update → Refresh now.
2. Check the rota against SystmOne. Export the rota from SystmOne (the admin team builds it about two weeks ahead) and drop the file onto Admin → Weekly update.
3. Rooster compares only the days SystmOne has built, ignores holding lines (ON CALL, Dr; LOCUM; NHS111) and non-GP staff, and under Review the changes SystmOne suggests shows:
   • Working patterns that differ every week — a doctor's usual days differ from Rooster. Tick only if the change is permanent.
   • On call in SystmOne — tick to update the weekly on-call pattern, or the individual dates where SystmOne differs.
   • Locum cover — doctors in SystmOne who are not on Rooster's roster. Adding them counts those sessions towards cover.
   • Sessions missing where Rooster expects a doctor and no leave is recorded — usually unbooked leave, a changed pattern, or a session not yet built. Check with the rota team.
4. Nothing changes until you press Agree selected changes. Every action is listed under Recent updates.

6.2 Checking cover (custodian, weekly and after any change)

The Month view rates each working day, and the Day ledger shows the same colour at the top of each day:

On-call counts as uncovered if the rostered doctor is on leave, not working, teaching, in a non-clinical session, not yet in post, or if nobody is assigned — whatever the headcount. Each day states its reason. From the ledger, See cover options opens the people who could fill that day.

6.3 Recording absence (custodian)

1. Planned leave normally arrives from Avensure (6.1). Record anything else on Admin → Leave entries: doctor, dates, session (full day, AM or PM) and type — Annual Leave, Study Leave, Meeting, Absent, Admin (non-clinical) or Other.
2. Record unplanned absence as soon as it is reported; Rooster updates the Month view, the ledger and the on-call message immediately. Colleagues see “Absent”, never the reason.
3. Check the Month view for any day that turns amber or red, and offer the session if needed (6.9).
4. Once, after go-live: run Admin → Leave entries → Old Avensure copies. It removes duplicate rows left from the original file import, which otherwise hide declined requests and double-count leave. A backup downloads first.

6.4 Changing on-call (custodian)

1. The standard on-call pattern by weekday is on Admin → On-call.
2. For a single date, add a date override; the standard pattern is not affected.
3. Never leave a session without an on-call doctor. Trainees are not rostered on call.

6.5 Recurring commitments and one-off changes (custodian)

1. Standing commitments — PCN meetings, trainee portfolio review, ST1 tutorials — are set on Admin → Recurring by weekday and occurrence (first, second, third or last of the month, every week, every week except the first, or every other week from a chosen date). They remove clinical capacity for that session.
2. To change one for a single date, add a one-off change: Skip or Reassign. A ⚠ means the block does not fall on the date chosen.
3. Delete recurring rules when a commitment ends; they otherwise repeat indefinitely.

6.6 Student teaching (custodian, each term)

1. Enter the teaching timetable on Admin → Teaching: date, AM clinic GP and PM lecture GP.
2. A teaching clinic runs six 20-minute contacts with debriefs; a lecture has no patient contacts.
3. The current timetable runs to 8 January 2027. Add the next term before then.

6.7 Requesting and deciding leave

Clinician:

1. Leave tab → Check or request leave. Enter the dates, session and type, and press Check to see the effect on cover before asking.
2. Request the leave through Rooster (Request this leave) or Avensure, in line with practice policy. Both appear on the admin's Leave requests page.
3. If you are rostered in that period, arrange a swap (6.8) before or alongside the request.

Approver: the Leave requests tab lists everything waiting, in two sections:

1. Requested in Rooster — decided here with Approve or Reject, with an optional note. Approving moves it to Waiting for Avensure: it still shows as awaiting approval and no email goes out. When the morning sync finds it approved in Avensure, Rooster confirms it and emails the requesting GP only. Confirm without Avensure is the manual override for leave agreed outside Avensure.
2. Awaiting approval in Avensure — decided in Avensure (Decide in Avensure). Rooster picks up the decision at the next sync. A request Avensure sends in several periods is shown as one request.
3. Each request carries a clash label and a cross-check grid: the requester, colleagues already off, and colleagues also waiting (striped), then cover now, if this one is approved, and if all overlapping requests are approved. Decide overlapping requests together, not one at a time; Rooster asks for confirmation before approving one that overlaps another.
4. Record leave approved in Rooster in Avensure as well while Avensure remains the record of entitlement.

6.8 Swaps between colleagues

1. Doctor: Leave tab → Ask a colleague to cover or swap. Choose Cover or Two-way swap, tick the colleagues shown as free, add a note if you wish, and send. One session per request.
2. Colleague: the request appears under the bell. Accept or decline; for a swap, choose which of your sessions they take in return.
3. Custodian: the acceptance appears under the bell — open it and press Apply swap. The first acceptance applied wins; on-call moves with the session. Reverse undoes a swap if needed.

6.9 Filling a gap: cover alerts (custodian)

1. Open the day: on the ledger press See cover options, or go to the Cover options tab and pick a date from the gaps for the next eight weeks.
2. Choose Morning, Afternoon or All day. Rooster lists who is free — not working that day, or working the other half — with the sessions each already has that week. People on leave or already working are not listed; trainees are not offered on-call. Locums are listed to contact directly.
3. Set the start and end times, unpaid break, hourly rate (as agreed by the partners) and appointment length, and add a note if useful.
4. Tick who to alert and press Alert. Each person receives a note under the bell and an email (“Cover request”) with a View and book link. They see the session, never the staffing figures.
5. People already alerted start unticked with Alert sent. Ticking more people adds them to the same offer; re-ticking someone sends a reminder. A second offer for the same session is never created.
6. The first person to book gets the session and goes on the rota (with on-call, if it was an on-call gap). The offer disappears for everyone else and the admins are emailed. Add the session in SystmOne at the next weekly update.
7. If nobody has booked within 48 hours of the session, Rooster flags it — book a locum.

6.10 Weekly on-call message (custodian, weekly)

1. Admin → On-call message: choose the week. The summary rebuilds automatically from current data and flags any on-call gap.
2. Copy it, or open it in WhatsApp, and send it to the clinical team.

6.11 Backups and continuity (custodian)

1. There is no master file. The database is backed up automatically every day by the hosting provider.
2. Keep at least two admins at all times, so the rota can be run if one is away.
3. If Rooster is unavailable, run the rota from SystmOne and Avensure as before, and tell the Digital Clinical Safety Officer.

7. Set-up and maintenance

8. Troubleshooting

9. Information governance and clinical safety

• Special-category data. Rooster holds staff absence information. Only admins can see absence reasons; colleagues see “Absent”. Colleagues cannot see other people's waiting leave requests. Keep SystmOne exports in practice-controlled storage and delete them once checked.
• Record of entitlement. Avensure remains the record of leave entitlement, balances and HR absence records until the partners decide otherwise.
• Email. Cover alerts contain the session, times, rate and note only — no staffing figures and no patient information. Each person receives their own email.
• Access. Rooster does not log in to SystmOne or Avensure on anyone's behalf. Any future automation would use a properly registered robot identity through the ICB, not a staff login.
• Before wider reliance on Rooster as a system of record, the practice should complete a DPIA and data processing agreement, and a DCB0160 clinical safety case with an independent Clinical Safety Officer review. Rooster holds no patient data, and chats must not be used for patient information.
• Limitations. Rooster is only as current as the last SystmOne check and the daily Avensure sync; offers and swaps change the rota in Rooster but must be added to SystmOne; chats are one-to-one and private to the two people in them; the ledger uses a standard session template and will not match every individual diary.

Hazards and controls

10. Review and version history

Appendix — record of staff review

Staff confirm they have read and understood this procedure.