Procurement description
The contracting authority, NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board (the Authority) is undertaking an urgent award for provision of Non-Clinical Payroll and Associated Services to the existing provider in mid and south Essex, in accordance with Schedule 5, Paragraph 13(1)(b) - Additional or repeat goods, services or works, under the Procurement Act 2023.
The scope of the requirement covers:
Compliance and governance (incl. adherence to UK employment law, HMRC requirements, and NHS payroll policies, NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) pay scales, terms, and conditions, integration with NHS Pensions Scheme regulations, GDPR-compliant data handling and secure storage of personal information)
-Payroll processing - (accurate and timely processing of payroll runs, calculation of gross pay, statutory deductions (e.g. income tax, NI), and net pay, management of statutory payments, management of salary sacrifice schemes).
-Pension and benefits administration (incl. full support for NHS Pension Scheme administration including joiners, leavers, and retirements, submission of monthly and annual pension returns, auto-enrolment compliance and re-enrolment processes).
-Employee lifecycle support (incl. processing of starters, leavers, and contract changes, issuing of payslips and P60s to employees via secure self-service portals, handling overpayments, underpayments, and retrospective adjustments).
-Reporting and integration (incl. provision of standard and custom payroll reports for internal use and external bodies, integration with HR systems, Real Time Information (RTI) submissions to HMRC).
-Customer service and support (incl. dedicated helpdesk or named account manager for ICB staff and employees, defined SLAs for issue resolution and enquiry handling, training for ICB HR and finance teams in using payroll systems and interpreting reports).
-Quality assurance and audit (incl. robust quality checks and reconciliation processes, support for internal and external audits, continuous improvement and regular performance reviews).
-System security and accessibility (incl. secure payroll system with user access controls, employee self-service portal for payslips, P60s, and personal data updates, business continuity and disaster recovery plans).
-Scalability and flexibility (incl. capacity to scale with organisational changes, flexibility to accommodate secondments, multi-post contracts, and complex NHS pay scenarios).
The Authority is proposing an additional 12 month contract award to Whittington to provide the service from 1st April 2026 to 31st March 2027, recognising that the contract value is likely to be uplifted by agenda for change pay award as well as any national changes e.g. increases in NI contribution. As such the estimated contract value for the purposes of the transparency notice is £115,114.
Whilst the 12 month estimated contract value does not exceed the public procurement thresholds, the approximate cumulative value of Authority spend with Whittington Health NHS Trust for this service since 1st December 2021 when the initial contract was let is c. £324,926.00. A Transparency Notice is therefore being issued in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023.