A guide to ESR coding for Advanced Practitioner roles

A guide to ESR coding – version 3 October 2025

Background 

The expectation regarding increased use of advanced practice roles is threaded throughout the NHS People Plan, and is a key part of the workforce transformation required to deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan and the NHS Long Term Plan. 

To ensure that advanced practitioners’ skills are consistently recognised, and to optimise the deployment of their skills across healthcare settings, we must ensure that the NHS workforce accurately reflects the breadth of the modern workforce. 

This will enable accuracy for short and long-term workforce planning and NHS England’s Education and Training Activity Plan (ETAP – previously multi professional education and training investment plan (METP)).  

This guidance is intended to clarify the correct coding of advanced and trainee advanced practitioner roles within ESR and will be useful for Advanced Practice Leads, HR Directors, workforce analytical teams, professional and service leads, and anyone with responsibility for ensuring accuracy of NHS workforce data. 

This guide does not replace the existing ESR guidance published by NHS England, which can be found here National Workforce Data set guidance documents. This guidance has been specifically developed for use with the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system, but it can also be adapted for use with other staff record systems when managing advanced practitioners. 

For further information, contact your regional faculties: 

What is Advanced Practice? 

Advanced Practice is a level of practice, not a job title. Registered professionals working at this level are called Advanced Practitioners (e.g., Advanced Paramedic Practitioner). 

It is defined as: 

“Advanced practice is delivered by accomplished registered health and care professionals. It is a level of practice characterised by a high degree of autonomy and designated responsibility for complex decision making. This is underpinned by a post-registration master’s level award or equivalent undertaken by an experienced practitioner that encompasses all four pillars of clinical practice, leadership and management, education, and research.  

Advanced practice embodies the ability to manage care in partnership with individuals, families, and carers. It includes the analysis and synthesis of complex problems, and management of clinical risk and uncertainty across a range of settings, enabling innovative solutions to expedite access to care, optimise people’s experiences, and improve outcomes” 

This level of practice is built on four pillars: 

Four Pillars of Advanced Practice Clinical Practice Leadership and Management Education Research

Advanced Practitioners: 

  • Work across a range of settings. 
  • Solve complex problems. 
  • Partner with individuals, families, and carers. 
  • Are accountable for decisions made in uncertain and high-risk environments. 

The Multi-professional Framework for Advanced Practice in England (2025) provides further guidance. 

Why is Correct Coding on ESR Important? 

  1. Workforce Visibility: Accurate coding ensures that Advanced Practitioners are visible in workforce data, which is essential for planning, investment, and service development. 
  1. Recognition and Role Clarity: It helps distinguish those working at the advanced level from those in training or in other roles that may include advanced in their title, ensuring appropriate recognition. 
  1. Funding and Commissioning: Correct coding supports accurate reporting, which influences funding decisions, commissioning, and policy development. 
  1. Career Progression and Development: It enables tracking of career pathways, supports talent management, and informs education and training needs. 

Coding changes for Advanced Practice 

Following the publication of an Information Standards Notification – version 3.3 in February 2022, version 3.4 in February 2023, and version 3.5 in February 2024, there have been amendments to the national workforce dataset.  

This includes a significant change to the job role coding for advanced practitioners within ESR. There will be more specific job roles than the current generic advanced practitioner for Nursing & Midwifery, and Allied Health Professional staffing group.  

All the following fields on ESR must be completed correctly. For detail refer to https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/areas-of-interest/workforce/nhs-occupation-codes 

Staff Group  

“Staff Group is a defined grouping of related job roles” 

E.g., Additional Professional Scientific and Technical, Allied Health Professions, Healthcare Scientists and Nursing and Midwifery 

Job Role: 

“Job Role is a generic description of the role associated with a position”.  

For those working at an advanced practice level that is mapped to the Multi-professional framework for advanced practice in England, use [Profession] Advanced Practitioner (as in table below)  

For those in training, use the Trainee Advanced Practitioner from the relevant staff group  

Occupation code  

Choose either A, N, S or U. This records the professional group of the advanced practitioner. Each category has a selection of designated occupational codes to choose from that provide additional detail of the profession.  

Area of Work  

Where possible choose the Area of Work code that reflects the specialism the practitioner works in, rather than your profession. e.g. Choose ‘General Acute’ not ‘Physiotherapy’  

Position Title  

This is a free text field in ESR that is used to describe job title. Staff who do not meet the ACP framework criteria, may still have ‘advanced’ in their job title, but should not have the ESR job role ‘Advanced practitioner’.  

The table below details the list of new Advanced Practice job roles aligned to the relevant staff group. 

Staff Group 

Profession 

Job Role 

Registered Nursing & Midwifery 

Registered Nursing 

Nurse Advanced Practitioner 

Registered Midwives 

Midwife Advanced Practitioner 

Trainee Advanced Practitioner  

Allied Health Professionals 

Art, Music & Drama Therapists 

Art Therapist Advanced Practitioner 

Music Therapist Advanced Practitioner 

Drama Therapist Advanced Practitioner 

Chiropodist/Podiatrist 

Chiropodist or Podiatrist Advanced Practitioner (Amended February 2023)  

Dietetics 

Dietitian Advanced Practitioner 

Occupational Therapy 

Occupational Therapist Advanced Practitioner 

Operating Department  

Operating Department Practitioner Advanced Practitioner 

Orthoptists 

Orthoptist Advanced Practitioner 

Orthotics 

Orthotist Advanced Practitioner 

Osteopathy 

Osteopath Advanced Practitioner 

Paramedic 

Paramedic Advanced Practitioner 

Physiotherapy 

Physiotherapist Advanced Practitioner 

Radiography (Diagnostic) 

Radiography – Diagnostic Advanced Practitioner 

Radiotherapy (Therapeutic) 

Radiography – Therapeutic Advanced Practitioner 

Prosthetics and Orthotics 

Prosthetist Advanced Practitioner 

Speech and Language Therapy 

Speech & Language Therapist Advanced Practitioner 

Multi-Therapist 

Multi-Therapist Advanced Practitioner 

Trainee Advanced Practitioner  

Add Professional, Scientific & Technical  

Add Professional, Scientific & Technical  

Advanced Practitioner 

Trainee Advanced Practitioner 

Pharmacist Advanced Practitioner (added in February 23)  

Optometrist Advanced Practitioner (added February 24) 

Healthcare Scientists 

Healthcare Scientists 

Clinical Scientist Advanced Practitioner (added February 2024) 

Biomedical Scientist Advanced Practitioner (added February 2024) 

Trainee Advanced Practitioner