Eligibility criteria is linked to national grade codes, associated terms and conditions of employment and the Department of Health consolidated salary scales.
Many jobs in the HSE have eligibility criteria. They set the minimum entry-level requirements to be eligible to apply for a post. Before you recruit, check to see if there are eligibility criteria for the role. You must use the agreed national eligibility criteria when you are designing your selection process and job specifications.
Using national eligibility criteria
These criteria are the minimum requirements for entry into the selection process.
They usually state:
- professional or academic qualifications
- statutory registration, if relevant
- years of experience required for appointment
Agreed national eligibility criteria are authorised by the National Director of HR and published on HSE website.
Each eligibility criteria has an assigned national grade code and salary scale.
Grading is based on professional groupings and categories. This helps to support service planning, delivery, performance and accountability.
Staff are categorised into 6 main categories, for example, nursing and midwifery, management and administrative.
The 6 categories divide into 26 staff groups, for example, nurse/ midwife specialist and AN/MP, management - VIII & above.
The staff groups include 96 grade groups, for example, advanced nurse/midwife practitioner, senior management - VIII and general manager.
The grade groups have almost 700 active grades, each with a grade code linked to a staff category, staff group and grade group (for example, advanced midwife practitioner and grade code 2535).
Amending and developing new eligibility criteria
The HSE’s National Director of HR approves eligibility criteria.
The process to determine and approve eligibility criteria involves engagement with the services and other internal and external stakeholders, including relevant professional associations and trade unions.
The relevant senior HR support to the service must also be involved. This is to make sure the eligibility criteria are not considered in isolation but in relation to other roles in that service.
They will have experience in dealing with recruitment challenges, skill-mix, continuing professional development, and establishment control of the relevant disciplines.
Other examples of consulting with stakeholders include the Health & Social Care Professions (HSCP) office or the Office of the Nursing & Midwifery (ONMSD).
Amending eligibility criteria
You can only amend eligibility criteria in line with service developments, statutory registration requirements, advances in educational standards or changes in scope and responsibilities of the role.
For example, when:
- a profession becomes a regulated profession
- statutory registration transition periods near their closing date
- HEI changes their name - CIT and IIT becoming MTU
- new awards come on stream or level of award is changed
Developing new eligibility criteria
New criteria can be a variation of existing criteria or completely new. It will depend on the purpose and responsibilities of the role.
Use the job specification to develop any new criteria.
You will need to check if:
- a qualification is necessary and is at the appropriate level
- a stated benchmark qualification is relevant or could a range of awards across different disciplines satisfy the requirement?
- the role is confined to any specific discipline or open to a range of disciplines
- there is a need for post graduate or post registration qualifications in addition to a primary qualification
- additional specialised qualification is required for specialist roles
Steps in developing new eligibility criteria
1. Draft a job specification using the HSE job specification template.
2. Submit the draft job specification to Strategic Workforce Planning & Intelligence for review.
They will check the fit between the post and:
- grade code, employee category, salary
- skills, knowledge and competencies required
- appropriate academic or professional qualification
- experience required
- existing relevant eligibility criteria
- CPSA Code of Practice principles
- EU Directive on qualifications
3. Consultation will take place with the requesting service or individual and as appropriate:
- National Doctor Training and Planning (NDTP), ONMSD, HSCP Office, and National Employee Relations (NERS)
- professional associations and/or regulators
- staff associations
- Higher Education Institutes (HEIs)
- National Recruitment Service (NRS)
4. The decision includes:
- consideration of the outcome of the review
- a proposal on criteria and selection criteria
- observations on Job Specification, description of roles and responsibilities
- decision on whether eligibility criteria should be a national standard or just for this post
What happens next
Strategic Workforce Planning & Intelligence conduct a post recruitment review after your campaign.
This review will help to decide if the criteria will be:
- standard national criteria for similar roles and grades, or
- once-off post-specific national criteria
The agreed standard national criteria for similar roles or grades and once-off post-specific national criteria are formalised and sent to National Director HR for authorisation.
The requesting service or individual relevant internal structures and external bodies will then receive the final criteria.
Strategic Workforce Planning & Intelligence keep once-off post specific national criteria on a database.
They will arrange to publish the new authorised national eligibility criteria on the HSE website. Any recruitment campaign must adhere to the national eligibility criteria whether permanent or temporary, full-time or part-time.
