NHS Enterprise Agreement benefits
Here you will find the main benefits to all organisations and NHS staff in England, that come as part of the Enterprise Agreement.
As an employee you can get a free copy of Office, order discounted software or take a selection of Microsoft training courses online.
Meanwhile NHS organisations can find out more about access to training vouchers, software assurance benefits, IT support and much more.
NHS Employee software and training benefits
There are a number of benefits available to NHS employees through the Enterprise Agreement. Staff benefits comprise of the Home User Programme, Employee Purchase Programme, free e-learning courses and training vouchers.
Home User Programme (HUP)
This programme allows NHS employees to order a home copy of Office 2007, Office 2003 or Office 2004 for Mac virtually for free, by only paying £17 for postage and packaging. To qualify, staff must order their free copy by entering their NHS email address.
Find out more and order your copy via the Home User Programme homepage
Employee Purchase Program (EPP)
Under this scheme NHS staff can purchase a small selection of Microsoft software packages for their home at discounted prices including a limited number of Xbox and PC games.
Find out more about what’s available and how to buy via the Employee Purchase Programme homepage
Microsoft e-learning courses
The Microsoft NHS Resource Centre web portal now offers free online training courses which NHS staff can follow at work or from home.
The courses comprise of a series of exercises covering Office, SharePoint and InfoPath functionalities. Each course is free and only available to NHS staff, accessible once again by using their NHS email address.
Find out more about how you can train for free
Training Vouchers
Under the Volume Licensing Agreement with NHS Connecting for Health, Microsoft provides the NHS with a substantial number of Training Vouchers which can be used against tutor-led technical training courses delivered by any Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions (CPLS) in the country, where one voucher equals one day's training per delegate.
Many training providers are also offering additional benefits to NHS organisations such as '2 for 1' deals and most are open to negotiation.
For further information please contact your Cluster Education, Training and Development (ETD) Lead or Jackie Smith at NHS Connecting for Health.
You can reach Jackie Smith at jackie.smith10@nhs.net and on 0113 280 6472 or 07770 730824.
What other benefits are there for NHS organisations?
There are a number of additional benefits associated with the Enterprise Agreement available for trusts through your Strategic Health Authority.
- New Version Rights: All software with Software Assurance (SA) rights can be upgraded to the latest software version over the lifetime of the agreement. Find out more about Software Assurance here.
- Desktop Deployment Planning Services: This partner-led service provides the fundamental processes, and technical procedures you need to execute a comprehensive desktop deployment project. NHS Connecting for Health receive 40 x 10 day engagements. Please contact NHS Connecting for Health directly.
- Extended Hot fix Support: Linked to an existing Premier Support agreement to give greater access to new non-security hotfixes when available.
- Corporate Error Reporting (CER): Monitor and review error information to control the deployment of fixes and can then provide the end user with a Microsoft or custom solution to rectify the issue.
- Enterprise Source Licensing Program (ESLP): Access Microsoft Windows source code for internal development and support to improve debugging, help maintain security, and help protect against viruses and other computer hazards.