Rotamap

Case Study: Using data from Rotamap's systems to support workforce insight and benefits realisation

Francesca Smith, Rotamap - September 2026

Introduction

At Rotamap’s All Doctor Rostering Event in March 2026, Sara Smith, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust (UHDB), presented on the rapid implementation of Rotamap’s services and the influence it had on the Trust’s access and use of medical workforce data.

As the Deputy Programme Manager of the Right People Programme, Sara oversaw the Trust’s successful and rapid rollout of Rotamap’s services which brought the immediate benefit of a single rostering platform across the medical workforce, improving visibility of medical activity across the Trust. With a comprehensive source of workforce data now available, the focus evolved towards unlocking more value through meaningful operational insight.

Sara shared the lessons learned in moving from implementation towards using rostering data to support workforce insight and benefits realisation, including the development of a ‘benefits realisation dashboard’ as part of the wider programme. By providing clear and consistent reporting across a defined cohort of services, the dashboard has supported the Right People Programme in exploring workforce trends, tracking benefits and identifying areas for further investigation. This has helped develop UHDB’s understanding of how rostering data can be used to inform workforce planning and improvement.

Starting point and new challenges

Prior to the implementation of Rotamap’s services, different specialties at UHDB had a range of different local rostering solutions which meant it was challenging to consistently report on and gain operational insights on topics such as service delivery, additional sessions worked, and activity lost due to sickness and leave. Procurement of Rotamap’s All Doctor Rostering (ADR) for a single e-rostering solution for the entire medical workforce was driven by the need for improved visibility and the goals of the Right People Programme to:

• Improve workforce utilisation
• Improve visibility of medical activity
• Support operational planning and financial control
• Enable evidence-informed decisions

The rapid implementation of Rotamap’s software across the medical workforce in under two years meant that the approach to system configuration, data usage and benefits realisation continued to develop alongside implementation. Increased availability of data created a new opportunity to explore how it could be translated into meaningful workforce insights, while the programme continued to develop its approach to benefits realisation and understand how the information could best support service planning and operational management.

Moving from KPI definitions to practical reporting categories

Sara explored how traditional workforce KPI reporting metrics could be applied to medical workforce data obtained from Rotamap services. However, these established metrics were designed around Agenda for Change staff groups which did not capture the distinctive working patterns of the medical workforce which included variability such as:

• Annualised job plans
• Compressed PAs
• Variable clinical activity
• Non-clinical sessions and commitments
• Cross site working

Recognising these differences, UHDB developed measures that were better suited to the characteristics of the medical workforce. The resulting measures were reliable, could be generated consistently and allowed meaningful comparison across the defined cohort of services, while remaining accessible to programme and operational stakeholders.

Creating the benefits realisation dashboard

A core set of 25 KPIs were established following a review of the types of data obtainable from Rotamap’s service use at UHDB. The reporting model is intentionally simple in design, avoiding metrics which require manual manipulation and all measures based solely on data extractable directly from CLWRota and Medirota*.

By independently using Rotamap’s Report Builder in Central Reporting with the support of Rotamap’s help site documentation and training video; Sara created a report directly linked by Rotamap’s Central API to a PowerBI dashboard. The reporting focuses heavily on delivered sessions and other data points which are readily available and consistently recorded within Medirota and CLWRota to make the following overview categories:

• Activity delivered
• Availability or loss
• Workforce deployment
• Pressure indicators

*The benefits realisation dashboard uses data from a defined cohort of services selected for benchmarking and benefits tracking, with sufficient consistent Medirota usage to support meaningful analysis.

Using the benefits realisation dashboard to provide operational insight

The benefits realisation dashboard is reviewed through the Right People Programme Group quarterly providing a consistent view of the defined cohort and supporting discussion of emerging trends, variation and benefits realisation. Example dashboard reporting usage case studies include the impact of the resident doctor industrial action and Derbyshire County Council school holiday periods on workforce, offering lessons learned to be integrated into future workforce management planning.

Conclusion

Using data from Rotamap’s rostering platforms and reporting tools has supported UHDB’s development of a PowerBI benefits realisation dashboard within the Right People Programme. Using a defined cohort of services, the dashboard provides a consistent approach to exploring medical workforce data, monitoring selected measures and identifying trends and variation over time.

A key learning from the development of the dashboard has been that access to consistent rostering data is an important starting point, but its value comes from developing meaningful measures and using them in the appropriate operational context. The work undertaken through the Right People Programme has helped UHDB build its understanding of the available data and explore how it can be used to support benefits realisation and future workforce improvement.