Before completing a vacancy request, please ensure the vacancy has the approval to be advertised. For further guidance on this, please visit 'The Recruitment Process Step by Step Guide' section on the Recruitment Page within the HR and Organisation Development section on your Hub.
The below guidance sets out key information that is required to ensure vacancies are easily identified and approved without delay. This includes specific requirements for the;
- department,
- cost code,
- job reference number,
- position number.
| New Vacancy Request | |
|---|---|
| When initially selecting 'New vacancy request' within Trac, you will be required to provide the following information. | |
| Department |
This determines which application form is used for the vacancy. The list will contain the following:
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| Band / Grade | Select the relevant band / grade as evaluated. |
| Disciplines |
To select the disciplines, choose the appropriate sector from the first box, then click the discipline(s) from the second box (hold ctrl to select more than one), then press ‘Select’ to move your choices over to the ’Selected Items’ list. This will be used as a filter for candidates, searching for roles in the relevant discipline. |
| Similar Vacancies |
Once the details of the vacancy have been entered, you will be given the option to use a template of a similar existing vacancy as the base for the new vacancy; if you choose to use a similar vacancy you will be able to edit the content before you submit it for authorisation. To use an existing vacancy, click on the radio button next to the job title and select ‘Continue’ to proceed to the next stage. Please be advised, only vacancies which have previously been approved through the full authorisation process will display as a similar vacancy. Click on the Job title to understand what information will be copied over from the existing vacancy. |
Once complete, you will need to provide the vacancy details by completing each tab, located at the top of the Trac page before submitting your vacancy request.
The following information provides instructions about how to complete each tab of the request.
| Authorisation | |
|---|---|
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Further guidance on Authorisation can be found on the Trac Website. |
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| Cost Code |
All NHSE cost codes are built into Trac, if your cost code is not included, please email ContactHRandOD@england.nhs.uk. |
| Position Numbers |
Every role we recruit to must have an ESR position number. If your role is a backfill, and you are the employee’s supervisor in ESR then you will be able to view their current position number on their ESR record. If you do not have a position number, please contact your local Establishment Control (EC) panel for guidance |
| Full-time Equivalent |
Enter the full-time equivalent (FTE) of the role. Please ensure you enter the full FTE the successful candidate(s) will be working. The FTE entered will need to match the FTE approved by the local Establishment Control (EC) panel. |
| Job Ref |
Input region or directorate. The full job reference number will be entered by the NHSE Recruitment Team. |
| Job Title | This is what candidates will see when searching for and viewing your role. It must match with the job title on the Job Description and Electronic Staff Record (ESR). |
| Reason for vacancy request | Details entered here provide authorisers with information as to why recruitment to this post is required. |
| Where is the funding for this post being generated? | Input ‘This is an established role in the structure’ |
| Please confirm the name of your budget holder (Band 9+) and confirm that they have provided their approval to commence their recruitment. |
Enter N/A because the role must have been approved through the EC process. |
| Please provide the reference number given by the EC panel as confirmation to recruit |
Please enter number. |
| Please state the reason number for the fixed-term contract from the list below or if your role is permanent enter ‘N/A permanent’: |
Vacancy requests will be sent back to draft if the fixed term reason is excluded as NHSE require candidates to be advised of the fixed term reason on the advert and in their offer letter and contracts. |
| Have you attached your authorisation to recruit email from the EC Panel in the internal documents? |
Enter “Yes” and ensure that you upload this under the internal documents section on the documents tab which is explained further on in this guidance document. Failure to upload this will result in your request being redrafted and delay your recruitment. |
| Does this role have line manager responsibilities? (Yes or No) | Enter “Yes” or “No” |
| Where the job title in ESR does not match the job title you are providing within this vacancy request (Trac), please confirm that you agree to contact the NHSE Workforce Team to request that the Job Title in ESR be updated prior to any successful candidate(s) being appointed. |
Enter ‘Yes’ If the Job Title in ESR does not match the Job Title you entered in Trac you must contact HR and OD Services at |
| Is this vacancy being raised externally as the result of an unsuccessful internal vacancy that has closed within the last 5 working days? (Yes or No) |
Enter “Yes” or “No” |
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If this vacancy is being raised externally as the result of an unsuccessful internal vacancy that has closed within the last 5 working days, please provide the vacancy reference number of the internal vacancy. |
Input the internal vacancy reference number. Enter N/A if this is not a readvertised role. |
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Does the role attract a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP)? (Enter Yes or No) (RRP is awarded in response to current labour market conditions, if you are unsure if this role attracts RRP, we advise you to speak with your HR Business Partner before progressing) |
Enter “Yes” or “No” |
| If RRP is applicable, at what %? (Enter N/A if the role does not attract RRP) |
Input the rate of RRP applicable to the role. |
| Target employment start date | A provisional date may be entered however this is not a definitive date. |
| Advertising Scope |
Select the intended audience for the advert. If unsure, please review your Organisational Policy or speak to a HR Advisor. Public - Advertised on NHS Jobs, Health Jobs, jobs.england.nhs.uk (NHS England Microsite) and other third-party advertisers. Internal - Advertised on Health Jobs jobs.england.nhs.uk and it will be marked as restricted, with a note indicating this role is only available to internal applicants. Restricted – Only to be used for offline recruitments. A unique link is created which is sent to the Recruiting Manager (RM) to distribute to relevant applicants |
| Authorisers |
This is the authorisation path, vacancies are authorised in the order entered here. You will only need to input the following authoriser:
This authoriser is the NHSE Recruitment team who will review the vacancy. If all the required information has been correctly input, the team will add any additional authorisers before approving. If the vacancy requires additional information or any amendments the team will send the vacancy back to draft for the Recruiting Manager (RM) to make the relevant amendments. |
| Vacancy Details | |
|---|---|
| Contract Type |
Select the relevant Contract type from the dropdown, for example, Permanent, Fixed term etc. For apprentice recruitments please ensure the contract type is entered as ‘Fixed term’ and that it covers the full duration of the apprenticeship. New apprentices should only be placed on a permanent contract if this has been agreed with the Head of Service, Contact HR, and the Apprenticeship Lead. |
| Additional contract details (if required) |
If the Contract type selected is not permanent, please enter the length of the contract type, for example, 'for XX Months/Years’ or ‘until DD MMM YYYY' |
| Working Pattern (Hours) |
Select from the following:
All other options form part of NHSE's Flexible working policy, therefore those roles should be advertised with the Flexible working pattern. |
| Hours / sessions per week |
Enter the number of hours for the role per week, for example, ‘Full time 37.5 hours per week’. |
| Grade (display) | The band/grade of the role being recruited. If ESM, please ensure you enter whether this is ESM1, 2, 3 or 4. |
| Min grade (search) | If an applicant is searching by band/grade, this is the minimum band/grade they can enter for their search that will match this vacancy. |
| Max grade (search) | If an applicant is searching by band/grade, this is the maximum band/grade they can enter for their search that will match this vacancy. |
| Salary period |
Select the relevant option from the dropdown. When ‘Yearly’ is selected, additional rate options will appear. Please ensure that ‘Base rate’ is selected. |
| Salary range |
Enter the salary range of the band/grade for this role. When these are automatically generated the range will be determined by what is entered in the Min grade (search) and Max grade (search); please ensure that you amend this field to state the bottom and top of the ‘Grade (display)’ as this is what will appear on your advert. If a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) is applicable to the role, calculate the RRP and overwrite the salary generated to include the base salary plus RRP. |
| Additional salary details |
Enter ‘per annum’ if Full time or ‘per annum pro-rata’ if Part time. If a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) is applicable to the role, enter the following: (this includes a RRP payment of [XX]%) |
| DBS Check required |
Select the relevant option from the dropdown. If required, the Job Description will be used to countersign the request. Please refer to the DBS eligibility guidance to understand if the role requires DBS clearance, as requesting an unwarranted DBS check will causes delays during the preemployment checking stage. This will generate an automatic message on the advert to alert applicants. If an enhanced DBS is required, please complete the additional boxes that become available. |
| UK professional registration | Select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ from the dropdown. This will generate an automatic message on the advert to alert applicants. |
| Occupational health requirement | Select the relevant option for the role. |
| Advertising start date |
No action required; this automatically defaults to the current date when the advert goes live. |
| Closing date |
Select the date which you would like the advert to close. The following minimum advert length is applied depending on the advertising scope: Internal – 10 Working days. External – 10 Workings days. Please note, once advertised you will receive an email confirming to exact closing date, this can be amended upon request. |
| Closing Time | The time should always be midnight. |
| Proposed interview date |
Please ensure you enter a future date; this will display on the Trac and NHS Jobs advert. Consider the time to authorise, advertise, shortlist, and set up interviews when including a proposed interview date. |
| Vacancy site | The site where the post is based, it must be an existing base on ESR. Flexible/homeworking roles still require an actual site. |
| Vacancy street address | This information is not required. |
| Vacancy town | The geographical location of the role. Flexible/homeworking roles still require an actual town. |
| Vacancy postcode |
Enter the postcode of the site where the role is based. This will determine the vacancy location on NHS Jobs (only one postcode will be accepted). |
| Payslip address | Enter Default Home. |
| Counties |
This determines the advert location when searching a vacancy, will default to the county in which the employer is based. Add up to 4 counties to widen your search option on Trac (does not affect adverts published on NHS Jobs). |
| Advert Details | |
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Further guidance on Authorisation can be found on the Trac Website. All text entered into the 'Advert details' tab will be displayed on the live advert. |
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| Advert details |
This information will be shown when the vacancy is advertised and is split into three sections. For all sections enter the text you wish to display in the live advert. If a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) is applicable to the role, please enter the following into the advert details: The post of [job title] has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to [XX]% per annum. Please be aware that RRP is none contractual and subject to review. Please note: Do not copy and paste text with formatting such as bullet points directly from a Word document into Trac as Trac cannot replicate this. To remove the formatting, text should be copied into Notepad first, bullet points and other formatting can be added once your text is within the Advert box field using the formatting toolbar. |
| Job Overview |
Use this section to provide an overview of the team and/or directorate/region that the role is located in and a high-level summary of how this role contributes to the overall delivery. There is a ‘Service and Team’ section in each job description, which will help you with this. This section has a minimum word limit of 100 characters and a maximum of 1,500 characters, including spaces. Where the reason for the vacancy is fixed term, you must add the following additional sentence into your advertisement text: ‘Please note that the reason for the fixed term of this contract is [add reason here].’ |
| Main Duties of the Job |
Use this section to give a brief description of the role – you may wish to refer to the ‘main duties’ section of the job description to produce a short summary of the role. This section has a minimum word limit of 100 characters and a maximum of 1,500 characters, including spaces. |
| Working for your Organisation | This section will be pre-populated. Please do not add or amend this text. |
| Job Description | Please copy and paste the wording from the Job Description in this section (do not include the Person Specification wording as this will be entered in the Role Requirements section). There is a character limit of 100 to 10,000 characters. If the wording in the Job Description is over 10,000 characters, please only add an extract and add a sentence to the start of this section to make it clear that the full detail can be found in the attached Job Description. |
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Contact name Contact job title Contact email address Contact telephone number |
Enter the details of the person applicants can contact for further details/informal visits. |
| Additional contact information | Enter any additional contact information if required. |
| Primary speciality | The main speciality of the post, this is displayed on the live advert. Avoid using acronyms or abbreviations with which external applicants may not be familiar. |
| Staff group | Select the staff group that matches the discipline entered below. |
| Disciplines |
This defaults to the disciplines selected when you first created the vacancy request. This will be used as a filter for candidates, searching for roles in the relevant discipline. |
| Documents | |
|---|---|
| Trac guidance about completing the documents tab can be found on the Trac Website. | |
| Public Documents |
Within this section you should upload the Job Description and Person Specification, along with any other relevant documentation. All documents uploaded within this section will be available to access by applicants. |
| Internal Documents |
Within this section you will need to upload a copy of your approval to recruit email that is provided following the Establishment Control Panel process. As confirmation of EC authority to recruit is required to proceed vacancies without this added will be moved back to draft. |
| Longlisting | |
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| No further action is required on this tab unless longlisting is due to take place. Where longlisting is required only use essential criteria from the Person Specification to name the piles. |
| Shortlisters | |
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| Trac guidance about completing the shortlisting tab can be found on the Trac Website. | |
| Shortlisting Panel |
Starting with the Lead Shortlister at the top, enter the names of the people who will shortlist the applications. Please be advised, all shortlisters entered here will be required to shortlist all applicants before the vacancy can be progressed to interview. |
| Interviewers | |
|---|---|
| Trac guidance about completing the interviewers tab can be found on the Trac Website. | |
| Interview Panel |
You must enter the interview panel members on the Interviewers tab. Please be advised these will be identified as ‘Provisional Interviewers (from Authorisation)’ throughout the system until they are confirmed by the Lead Shortlister when they set up the interviews later in the process. |
| Role Requirements | |
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This is where you will enter the requirements for the role from the Person specification, this information will be used to assess the applicant during the shortlisting stage. Please note that this information will be available for the candidate to view and once the advert is published cannot be updated/amended. You should add all the role requirements that you will use for shortlisting. |
| Questions | |
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Questions are built into the system and these will be selected by the NHSE Recruitment Team when advertising the vacancy. |
| Notes | |
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It is possible to put notes into the final section of the vacancy request prior to submission however if you do add any notes here, we will not be informed of this. For any important information or requests concerning your recruitment you should contact the NHSE Recruitment team on england.hrrecruitment@nhs.net. |
| Request Authorisation | |
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Once you are happy that all the details of the new vacancy are correct, click on the Request authorisation button, this will send a notification to the first Authoriser on the list informing them a vacancy request has been submitted which requires their approval. |
| Error Messages | |
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If you are attempting to submit the vacancy however you get an error message highlighted in pink, please view the Trac support guidance within the ‘Support’ section under ‘Error message appearing when submitting the vacancy authorisation request.' |
| Saving a vacancy to draft | |
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If you are unable to complete the vacancy request and want to save your progress you can save the vacancy as a draft by clicking the ‘Save draft’ button at the bottom of the page.
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| Further information and Guidance | |
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A video tutorial is also available on the Trac website. |