Welcome to the West Lancashire Adult Community Health Service Transition Microsite

TUPE is an abbreviation referring to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. The purpose of these Regulations is to protect the employment rights of colleagues where:

• An organisation, or part of it, is transferred from one employer to another.
• A service is transferred to a new provider, for example when another company takes over the contract for office cleaning, or healthcare provision.

Colleagues therefore may be impacted by TUPE where:

• They are transferring from their current employer (such as HCRG Care Group) to a new employer.
• Other employees are transferring to a new employer from within your wider team, but some colleagues stay employed HCRG Care Group and do not transfer.
• Other employees from the wider organisation have been transferred to HCRG Care Group.

Substantive colleagues who dedicate most of their working time to the contract are eligible to transfer under TUPE.

Bank workers, contractors and agency workers are excluded from TUPE and any arrangements will cease on the day before transfer.

Any bank workers, contractors and agency workers who wish to continue with the service exiting would need to contact the new provider to have relevant conversations as the ongoing arrangement will cease with HCRG Care Group on the day prior to transfer.

Colleagues who are eligible to transfer can decide to object to their transfer and not transfer to the new provider. This would amount to a resignation, with effect from the transfer date and no redundancy payment is applicable.

If a colleague chooses not to transfer, it is highly recommended to discuss your concerns with your line manager in the first instance; or seek advice through our Employee Assistance Programme or Citizen’s Advice.

Transferring colleagues, employed by HCRG Care Group will transfer at midnight on the day of transfer, to the new employer.

Typically, TUPE occurs on the 1st of a month and therefore colleagues should see no impact; however, this will depend on the new provider ensuring that colleague records are set up and in receipt of the correct tax codes/ For this, it is recommended that if prompted by the new provider, to provide a copy of the latest payslip.

If a TUPE transfer occurs mid-month, this may have implications on tax being paid due to being paid by two employers in 1 month. In these circumstances, the tax paid is out of both employers control and colleagues will be placed on an emergency tax code on the new provider’s systems. Colleagues who believe to have overpaid tax would need to liaise with HMRC directly towards the end of the following tax year.

Colleagues current pension arrangements including colleague and employer contribution rates are provided to the new provider on the ELI. The new provider will confirm if their Measures letter what the pension arrangements will be post transfer; but please note, under TUPE, it is required only for the new provider to provide a pension scheme of similar value.

Continuous service is contractual and will therefore transfer to the new provider on the ELI.

TUPE does not specify a time period; however, it protects employment and the contractual terms and conditions that colleagues are employed on indefinitely. These should then remain unchanged unless agreement is reached through a consultation process.

If the main reason for the change is unrelated to the transfer, the new provider can consult on these in the usual way at any time following their internal policies for change. Even if the main reason is the transfer, changes may still be made if there is an economic, technical, or organisational reason entailing a change in the workforce. In addition, terms made under a collective agreement which is more than a year old may be changed if the overall effect is no less favourable to the colleague. In any event, TUPE does not preclude changes which are entirely positive to colleague.

All policies that are non-contractual do not transfer; however, we will share a copy of our Pay & Reward Policy.

Contractual policies and those negotiated through the BMA JLNC will transfer and will be shared with the new provider.

TUPE Regulations place a responsibility on HCRG Care Group (as the current employer), to provide the new provider with details of any colleague who are eligible to transfer. The data provided will include, but not limited to, the following:

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• Salary range or grade
• Hours and weeks worked.
• Job title
• Pension scheme membership

It is also required for HCRG Care Group to provide any contractual agreements, arrangements, and terms in addition to live disciplinary, grievance or legal claims.

At HCRG Care Group, no policies are deemed to be contractual, unless a colleague transferred to HCRG Care Group with contractual policies; therefore, upon commencement with the new provider, colleagues will commence being aligned to the new providers policies and procedures.

HCRG Care Group endeavours to provide anonymised Employee Liability Information (ELI) data upon request from the new provider; however, will not provide full ELI until 28 days prior to transfer. This is to ensure data provided is factually correct and contains details of only those colleague who are transferring. HCRG Care Group will also provide subsequent reports detailing:

• Tax codes
• Student loan codes
• Training records

HR files that are held by our Support Services teams will transfer shortly after the transfer. If files are held within the service paper-based will be managed separately.

OH records will get transferred from Sugarman Health and Wellbeing (HCRG Care Group’s OH provider) to the new providers OH department. Due to this data being medical information, in advance of transfer, colleagues will be asked if they opt out of the transfer of these records and records will then only be transferred for those who have not opted out shortly after transfer.

It would be expected that colleagues access iTrent People Portal prior to transfer to download copies of their payslip.

After transfer, requests can be made to AskHR for copies, but these may only be able to be provided via a data extract in a spreadsheet.

All providers will take a slightly different approach, and colleagues will be kept informed at key stages through the assigned HCRG Care Group project lead and working group.

Typically, colleagues should expect to have the following meetings, however, this may vary:

• Engagement Session to learn about the new provider which is hosted by new provider.
• Receive a Measures Letter which outlines any changes the new provider is planning to make.
• Consultation Sessions (group and/or individual) to discuss changes in more detail and ask questions.

Where face to face meetings are arranged, all eligible colleagues will be invited to attend; however, if colleagues are unable to attend, questions are able to be submitted to the new provider through colleague representatives.

TUPE requires that if any ‘measures’ are envisaged, affected employees will be consulted (Regulation 13(6)).

The term ‘measures’ is not explicitly defined under TUPE regulations, but it could, for example, include envisaged changes in working patterns, pay date or base location. It is also common to include administrative changes such as changes to the holiday year; systems being used and quipment changes.

These consultations are typically completed as a joint meeting between both HCRG Care Group (inform) and the new provider (consult) to ensure all questions are able to be answered and support all colleagues through the process.

As HCRG Care Group do not have any agreements with unions, colleague representatives will be elected. Colleague representatives are volunteers from within the transferring group who act as a single point of contact.

TUPE does not require that the new employers reach agreement with the appropriate colleague representatives, but that they engage in genuine and meaningful consultation, considering any representations made and providing responses, with reasons if the representations are rejected.

Each provider will take a different approach and seek to gather different information. This can range from gathering Right to Work evidence to understanding more about the roles and ways of working.

Colleagues will be supported by HCRG Care Group through the TUPE process with colleague representatives being elected to act as a single point of contact.

The Employee Assistance Programme remains accessible throughout up until day of transfer and can be used to seek independent advice.

Yes, Colleagues will continue to have access to existing reward schemes until the day of transfer other than salary-deduction schemes such as SmartTech Loans and salary-sacrifice schemes such as Cycle to Work and electric cars. Stream access will also cease in the month prior to transfer.

You must however be aware that non-contractual benefits such as Cycle to Work, Cars and SmartTech Loans are non-transferrable and must either be paid in full or early terminated prior to exit. These costs are not able to be reclaimed back via HCRG Care Group.

We will explore with new provider(s) to understand where contracts can be novated or where SmartTech Loans can be transferred but this may not be possible. Colleagues impacted by this will be contacted directly to provide additional information.

iTrent access will cease at midnight on 30th June 2026. To ensure all payments are processed correctly, colleagues must adhere to the payroll cut-off dates for timesheets, mileage, and expense claims.

The confirmed payroll cut-off dates for 2026 are published and available to download from Quest prior to transfer.

If you encounter any issues when submitting claims or authorising them as a manager, please contact ask.hr@hcrgcaregroup.com with the subject line clearly marked as TUPE EXIT Timesheet.

For any mileage or cash expense claims that cannot be completed before the published cut-off dates, colleagues will be able to submit a manual expenses form (found in TUPE Paper). This form must be submitted by the deadline and approved by your manager, with the subject line TUPE EXIT Manual Expenses, for an out-of-payroll payment.

Annual leave can still be booked; however, colleagues need to ensure to keep a record of their pre-booked annual leave for sharing with the new provider.

HCRG Care Group will provide only details of entitlements and any required carry over in exceptional circumstances.

You will retain access to Stream until the month before transfer. At this point, we are required to make you a ‘leaver’ on iTrent, to trigger your P45 and final payslip. It is at this point that you will lose access to Stream. We would encourage that you consider this whilst planning your finances in the months prior to leaving us.

A TUPE transfer is treated by Universal Credit as a change of employer.

You should update your Universal Credit journal to report the change, particularly if your pay date or pay frequency will differ after the transfer. Changes to when or how you are paid may affect how Universal Credit assesses your earnings in each assessment period. If you have any concerns, please contact Universal Credit directly through your journal for further guidance.

Yes, both providers have confirmed that they support the carryover of any outstanding annual leave that colleagues may have on transfer. This means that colleagues are able to take any annual leave they wish pre and post-transfer, provided that the total doesn’t exceed their yearly allowance

On transfer, the new provider will settle the outstanding balance of your SmartTech loan with HCRG Care Group. Repayments will then continue with your new employer, who will recover the ongoing monthly payments through payroll deductions until the loan is fully repaid.

This arrangement mirrors your current SmartTech loan agreement with HCRG Care Group, and you should therefore experience no change to the overall cost or repayment profile of the loan as a result of the transfer.

We work with the new provider to transfer your Quality and Safety training records. However, this transfer will not include all learning you may have completed while part of HCRG Care Group.

To ensure you retain a full record of your learning, we ask that all colleagues download their Record of Learning from My Learning Hub by 30 June 2026.

How to download your record:

• Log in to your My Learning Hub account
• Click the “My Learning” drop-down menu
• Select “My Record of Learning”
• Scroll down the page
• Click “Export as Excel”
• Select Export
• Your learning record will download to your files