From 1^st April to 30^th June 2025, One Care’s HR services will be free to practices to assess the value in offering these services as part of member subscription.

One Care’s practice HR services cover a wide range of support, including:

• Employee relations support – assistance with managing employee stress, absence, and resolving problems
• Performance management support
• Disciplinary and grievance support – guidance, advice and attendance at disciplinary and grievances meetings.
• Advice related to employment termination
• Bespoke policies and letter templates
• Advice on contractual queries
• Mediation

Feedback about the service has been very positive, with one practice who has made use of One Care’s practice HR support commenting, “One Care supported us through two difficult HR processes, including a termination of contract. Gertruda and Lauren provided a fast and proficient service, their HR knowledge was excellent. They gave as sound and clear advice, as well as drafting letters for us. Thank you.”

One Care has received short-term funding to run this pilot. The subsequent inclusion of this support in the subscription fee will be contingent on sufficient uptake, so practices are highly encouraged to make use of it.

If you would like to make use of this free support, please contact One Care’s People Services.

Having an accessible, easily navigable website makes patients more likely to make it their first port of call for finding out information and getting in touch with their practice. As the healthcare system becomes increasingly digital, a usable website is more important than ever. Here are five top tips to make your practice’s website as usable for patients as possible.

Create an intuitive homepage and navigation bar layout

Studies by NHS England show the most important tasks to patients are being able to book, change, or cancel appointments; order repeat prescriptions; register with a practice; get a sick / fit note; get test results; and find out opening times and contact details. It’s therefore wise to have these links in the top third of your home page and in your navigation bar. However, don’t overload either of them – stick to what patients are looking for most often.

Check how your site looks on mobile browsers

The majority of people now access web content on their mobile phones. Check your site is still navigable via a mobile browser – ideally, get colleagues involved to check it on a variety of devices (older, newer, Apple, Android, etc).

Use an accessibility testing tool

The WAVE browser extension is a good starting point for picking up issues that people using screen readers might run into. Install the extension and look over your home page and frequently visited pages. If you see lots of errors, contact your website provider to try and resolve them. However, this doesn’t replace a full accessibility audit, which your website provider should be able to run.

Make sure your written content is readable to a range of patients

Did you know that the average reading age in the UK is approximately nine years old? Making sure the written content on your website is in plain English, free of jargon (including terms like ‘triage’ and ‘online consultation form’) will ensure as many people as possible understand the information, which can reduce unnecessary or confusing contacts. To test how readable your content is, try Hemingway.

NHS England also has some excellent templates for frequently visited pages, such as appointments and prescriptions, which you can adapt for your practice. (In fact, the whole guide is a brilliant resource for anyone looking to improve their practice website!)

Engage with your PPG

Your patients are the most valuable source of feedback – get their thoughts about how easy they find the website to use, and the changes they would like to see.

We hope you find these tips useful. If you’d like help to make your website more usable and accessible, contact Alasdair Wallace who will be happy to help.

The collaborative bank project has hit an exciting milestone, with the first shifts filled and completed by a member of the bank.

The collaborative bank uses technology from Ryalto to enable practices to offer shifts to other local practice staff, and be matched with colleagues who have the necessary skills and experience to fill them.

Nine practices across BNSSG are taking part in the initial pilot stage. One Care is also recruiting additional staff to the bank itself, including care navigators and medical secretaries. This will increase the agility of their workforce, offering a way for participating practices to fill gaps in their workforce to meet their patients’ needs flexibly and quickly.

Michéle Powell, PCN Delivery Manager at Phoenix PCN, said “The collaborative bank and the Ryalto app are helping us transform how we deliver care to our patients. The additional capacity it offers will be a fantastic tool to help us tackle winter pressures.”

The Ryalto app is also being used to great success in Network 4 PCN to manage shifts for vaccination clinics, with nearly 2000 shifts booked.