How NHS shortlisting works: the person specification, essential and desirable criteria, and scoring

Updated · By the Tick the Spec team

NHS shortlisting is a check of your application against the person specification for the job. A panel, usually the recruiting manager and one or two colleagues, goes through each criterion and records whether your application gives evidence for it. If you do not show evidence for every essential criterion, you will normally not be invited to interview, however strong the rest of your application is. Desirable criteria are used to choose between applicants when many meet all the essentials.

Understanding this one fact changes how you write. You are not writing a general letter about why you would be good. You are giving the panel something they can tick, line by line.

What the person specification is

Every NHS job pack has a job description (what the job involves) and a person specification (what the person needs to have). The person specification is usually a table grouped under headings such as:

  • Qualifications (for example, GCSE English and maths, NVQ Level 3, NMC registration)
  • Experience (for example, experience of working in a busy clinical environment)
  • Knowledge and skills (for example, working knowledge of Microsoft Office, understanding of confidentiality)
  • Sometimes personal qualities or values, often linked to the trust's own values or the values in the NHS Constitution

Each line is marked Essential or Desirable. Some packs also say how each criterion is assessed: "A" for application form, "I" for interview, "T" for test. A criterion marked "A" is the one you must prove in writing.

How the panel scores you

Methods vary by employer, but the principle is the same everywhere: evidence against criteria.

  • NHS Jobs (England and Wales). In the current NHS Jobs service, applicants enter supporting evidence in separate boxes for qualifications, experience, and knowledge and skills, each with an essential and a desirable box. NHSBSA's user guide for employers shows shortlisters selecting, for each section, the essential and desirable criteria the applicant "has evidenced".
  • Points scales. Many trusts use a simple scale for each criterion, for example 0 = not met, 1 = partly met, 2 = fully met. Others use a 1 to 4 or 1 to 5 scale. The scale is local, so treat it as unknown unless the advert or trust website says otherwise.
  • Trac and other systems. Many trusts use other recruitment systems (often Trac) with a single "supporting information" box. The panel still marks you against the person specification; you just have to make the structure obvious yourself.

Panels are expected to record a reason for each decision, so a vague answer ("I have excellent communication skills") is hard for them to score even if they believe you. A specific one ("I take around 60 calls a day on the outpatient booking line and explain appointment changes to patients, some of whom are anxious or hard of hearing") is easy to score.

Anonymised shortlisting

Many NHS systems hide your name and personal details from shortlisters. NHS Jobs tells applicants not to include personal information that could identify them, such as name or contact details, in the supporting evidence boxes. Keep your evidence about what you did, not who you are.

Interview guarantees

Many NHS employers are Disability Confident employers and offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. Some also run guarantee schemes for armed forces veterans or care leavers. These still depend on you showing the essential criteria, so the evidence matters just as much.

Step by step: writing for the panel

  1. Copy the person specification into a list. One line per criterion, with E or D beside it.
  2. Mark what your CV already proves. Qualifications are usually easy. Experience and skills often need a sentence of context.
  3. Find the gaps. For each essential criterion you cannot yet prove, ask yourself where you have done something similar: another job, volunteering, caring for a relative, study.
  4. Write one short paragraph per criterion, using the same words as the person specification so the panel can find it.
  5. Cover desirable criteria after the essentials, briefly.
  6. Check you are inside the limit and every essential criterion marked "A" is addressed.

Worked example (fictional)

This example is invented for illustration. The person and details are not real.

Priya is applying for a Band 3 ward clerk post. One essential criterion is: "Experience of using computer systems to record and retrieve information accurately." Her first draft said:

I am very good with computers and always accurate.

A panel cannot score that. Her revised paragraph:

Experience of using computer systems to record and retrieve information accurately. In my current role as a receptionist at a dental practice I book, move and cancel around 40 appointments a day on the practice management system and update patient contact details. I check each change back with the patient before saving. When I started, our failed-to-attend rate was being affected by out-of-date phone numbers, so I began confirming numbers at every visit; over six months the number of returned text reminders fell noticeably.

The heading mirrors the criterion, the system and volume are specific, and there is a result. Note that she says "fell noticeably" rather than inventing a percentage she does not know.

Common mistakes

  • Skipping an essential criterion because you think it is obvious from your CV. Panels mark what is written.
  • Writing about the trust instead of yourself. One sentence on why you want the job is enough.
  • Using the job description instead of the person specification. The job description says what you will do; the person specification is what you are scored on.
  • Claiming without evidence. "I am a team player" scores nothing without an example.
  • Pasting the same statement into every application. Criteria differ between posts even at the same band.
  • Exaggerating. Interviews and references test what you wrote. Only claim what you did.

After shortlisting

Shortlisting can take a few weeks after the closing date. If you are not shortlisted, it is reasonable to ask the recruiting manager for brief feedback on which criteria you did not evidence. Adverts sometimes close early when many applications arrive, so apply as soon as your statement is ready.

If you would like to see your own evidence laid out against each line of a person specification before you write, the shortlisting sheet in Tick the Spec does exactly that, and asks you for real examples where there are gaps.

Read next: Person specification explained: essential vs desirable criteria · NHS Jobs essential and desirable criteria boxes: what to write · How to show NHS values in your application (with examples)

Sources

All guides