A secondee is any candidate who is being temporarily transferred to another position or employment.
If the candidate currently works for another NHS body, for example the NHS Business Services Authority (BSA), they would be classed as external, as they are not currently employed by NHS England (NHSE).
Important: The Secondment Attestation process only applies to candidates who are currently employed by an NHS organisation or a Civil Service organisation. Candidates from any other employer will follow the standard Business-As-Usual (BAU) pre-employment process.
Application
When a candidate applies for a role, they will be asked to provide their substantive HR contact details on the application form. This is a new question added to Trac and is essential for candidates who may be seconded from an NHS or Civil Service organisation.
Offer
Once the offer stage is reached, NHSE will issue the offer letter to the candidate. At the same time, if the candidate provided substantive HR contact details and is from an NHS or Civil Service organisation, NHSE will send the relevant Secondment Attestation Form to that HR contact.
A clear note will be added to Trac confirming whether the candidate is following the attestation route or the standard BAU route.
There are two versions of the secondment attestation form: one for NHS employees and one for Civil Service employees.
Conditional Offer
When the candidate moves into the conditional offer stage, the HR Shared Services (HRSS) Recruitment team will review the notes in Trac.
If the attestation was not sent, the process continues as normal with BAU pre-employment checks.
If the attestation was sent, HRSS will wait for five working days for the attestation to be returned.
Five-Day Review
After five working days, HRSS checks whether the substantive HR contact has returned the attestation:
- If the attestation is returned (at any time): HRSS sends the ‘Acknowledgement of Secondment Attestation’ Trac template and uses the information provided to confirm which checks have already been completed by the substantive employer. If all required checks are confirmed, no further BAU checks are needed. If only some checks are confirmed, HRSS completes the remaining checks through the BAU process.
- If the attestation is not returned: HRSS proceeds with the full BAU pre-employment process for all required checks.
- If the attestation is returned after five working days: HRSS reviews what has already been started. If BAU checks have begun, they stop any checks confirmed by the attestation and continues only with those that remain outstanding. If the attestation confirms all checks, BAU checks can be halted entirely. If the attestation confirms only some checks, HRSS completes the remaining checks through BAU.
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
HRSS will request a new DBS check if the role requires it and the candidate’s existing DBS is older than three years or is at a lower level than required for the new role.
First day Identity check
If the substantive organisation confirms the candidate’s identity via the attestation, candidates will be advised to bring photographic ID on their first day. NHSE line managers must use this ID to carry out a day-one identity check and confirm completion of the check to HRSS. Where the BAU process is followed to confirm a candidate’s identity, the standard imposter check procedure must be applied.
Final Review and Agreement
Once all checks are marked as successful, the HRSS Recruitment team will do a final review to ensure everything is correct. When the review is complete and all checks are completed correctly, the Blocking starter check: File review task will be marked as a success, which will automatically move the candidate to Offer: Employment Checks OK.
The HRSS Recruitment team will inform the Recruiting Manager when all required pre-employment checks are complete. HRSS will ask the Recruiting Manager for the candidate’s first day reporting (FDR) information and, if not already provided by the lead interviewer, the substantive organisation’s name and address to enable them to prepare the secondment agreement.
HRSS Recruitment will generate a Candidate Enrolment Form (CEF) which will be sent to the NHSE People and Organisation Development (People and OD) team, who will add the secondee to the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).
HRSS Recruitment will produce a secondment agreement, which is emailed to the candidate. The candidate will be asked to sign and forward it to the substantive organisation for signing before returning a copy of the agreement, which will be held in the employee’s file.
Returning the signed Secondment Agreement
Once the secondment agreement has been signed by all parties, the secondee should return a copy of the document to HRSS by replying directly to the original email received so this is attached to Trac.
Non-recruitment secondment
The standard process is through Trac, however in exceptional circumstances where a secondment agreement is made and it is not part of a recruitment campaign, please speak with the NHSE People and OD team.
Changes to a Secondment
Where an amendment has been made to a secondment, for example, the secondment has been extended, the secondee's line manager will be able to make the adjustments in ESR via Manager Self Service (MSS). Should they require any further assistance with this, they will need to contact the NHSE People and OD team.
Terms and Conditions
During the secondment period, the secondee will remain an employee of their substantive employer, on the substantive's payroll, under the substantive's terms and conditions.
When on secondment, the substantive employer will continue to pay the employee's salary, and the substantive employer should invoice your organisation to recoup this.