Accessibility statement for NHS Electronic Staff Record

This accessibility statement applies to NHS Electronic Staff Record solution including ESR Hub and MyESR Portal.

This website is run by NHS Business Services Authority. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader

We have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• some buttons and links do not have unique names or are empty
• some elements do not have allowed Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) attributes or appropriate roles
• there are two elements in the search box which receive keyboard focus
• some content does not have an unique name or identifier
• has an empty heading and a skipped level heading
• it may not be possible to fully navigate the website using speech recognition software
• some tables will have no <labels>

Feedback and contact information

Contact us if you need information about this website in a different format, such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille. We will consider your request and get back to you within 5 working days.

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, you can contact us using the same email address:

Email: accessibility@nhsbsa.nhs.uk

This email address is only for accessibility queries.  It is not for technical queries or IT problems. If you have a query that is not about accessibility, you can contact us by:

Email: esr.communications@nhs.net

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the `accessibility regulations').

If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)

Technical information about this website's accessibility

The NHS Business Services Authority is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

On the ESR Hub pages, there are background and foreground colours that do not have a sufficient contrast ratio. This fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text. When Browsing the National content there are four empty form labels. This fails WCAG2.2 Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value), as those using assistive technology may get confused.

There are a number of dashboard pages that have some contrast errors. These are the `My ESR Dashboard', `Recruitment Dashboard', `Payroll Dashboard', `Applicant Dashboard', `Leavers Dashboard', and `Upcoming Classes'. This fails WCAG2.2 Success Criterion This fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text.

The following Dashboards have contrast errors and images with missing alternative text; the `Manager Dashboard', ` HR Dashboard', `Learner Search', Learner Homepage'. This fails WCAG2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). Users will not be provided with a descriptive identification of that image. It also fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text. Note, the Learner Homepage also has zooming disabled and will be problematic to users with low vision and rely on screen magnification. This fails 1.4.4 (Resize Text).

On the Learning Dashboard there is a contrast error. This fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text. There are regions which are not scrollable using a keyboard and the content is not tabbable. This fails WCAG2.2 Success Criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard). The contrast error also occurs on the Update Attendance area of this Dashboard.

The Payroll Exceptions page has a number of contrast errors. This fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text. Some images also have redundant text. This fails both WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content) and 2.4.4 (Link Purpose). This can make the purpose of the link ambiguous to users. There are element with an ARIA is missing required children, some uses of ARIA roles on incompatible elements, and some missing labels. These all fail WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). This could hinder assistive technologies from understanding the links or labels.

The Online Payslip facility has a Linked image missing alternative text and a contrast error. This fails WCAG2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). Users will not be provided with a descriptive identification of that image, it also fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text. There are also some touch targets with insufficient sizing. This may create difficulties for users when targeting small controls. This fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 2.5.8 (Minimum Target Size).

On the Personal Information Page there is a contrast error, some images with missing alternative text and an Empty heading. There is also an access key that is not unique. These fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content) and 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), both could hinder proper navigation and understanding of the images presented.

The Talent Profile page there is a contrast error, some images with missing alternative text and some broken ARIAs references. This fails WCAG2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). Users will not be provided with a descriptive identification of that image, it also fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text, and WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). This could hinder assistive technologies from understanding the links or labels. Zooming is disabled and will be problematic to users with low vision and rely on screen magnification. This fails 1.4.4 (Resize Text).

The Absence Homepage has a number of contrast errors, some images with missing alternative text and some broken ARIAs references. A number of these relate to a table outside of our control and we are working with a third party supplier. Some screen readers may have difficulty navigating this table. This fails WCAG2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). Users will not be provided with a descriptive identification of that image, it also fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text, and WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). This could hinder assistive technologies from understanding the links or labels.

The Compliance Matrix has a number of contrast errors, this fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text. There are also some missing labels, images with missing alternative text and empty tables headers. These could hinder assistive technologies from understanding the links or labels and navigating the tables. This fails WCAG2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value), 2.4.4 (Link Purpose).

The Add Enrolments pages has a number of contrast errors, this fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and some people may not be able to read faint text. There are also some missing labels, images with missing alternative text. These could hinder assistive technologies from understanding the links or labels. This fails WCAG2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value), 2.4.4 (Link Purpose). There are also some touch targets with insufficient sizing. This may create difficulties for users when targeting small controls. This fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 2.5.8 (Minimum Target Size).

All the above are being reviewed and future releases of the content will aim to address the contrast, image and label findings. This is intended to be complete by December 2025.

Disproportionate burden

Not applicable.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Some organisations have added a `X' feed to their content. This is known to incur accessibility issues.

Additionally content uploaded to the banners for their organisation is not under the responsibility of ESR.

PDFs and other documents

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We are committed to making sure this website is compliant to WCAG 2.2 `AA' standard.

Our accessibility compliance statement will be reviewed regularly.  Every new released website will be designed, built and tested to meet `AA' standards by default.

We work continuously with third party suppliers to improve the accessibility across the website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was originally prepared on 12 May 2022.  It was last reviewed on 28 February 2025.

This website was last tested on 8 January 2025 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. The test was carried out by the IBM UK Ltd ESR Programme Team. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

We run each webpage through automated Wave, Lighthouse and Axe accessibility tools then manually test with screen readers (ChromeVox) and standards checklists.

These checklists contain standards that have been compiled using WCAG, the NHS service manual and Government Digital Service (GDS) guidance.