The below document sets out the supported M365 and Online Services licence types on the NHSmail platform. It also covers the differences between nationally provided licences, Top-Ups and Add-Ons.
‘Top-up’ licences refer to the range of base licence product alternatives (outside of the nationally allocated licences) offered by Microsoft and supported by the NHSmail Platform. ‘Add-on’ licences refer to application specific features that can be applied on top of the allocated base licences- these too can be procured and onboarded to the tenant.
Supported Microsoft Licences
Please see the below table to understand what is supported on the NHSmail platform. Supported means that these licence types can be onboarded onto the NHSmail tenant and allocated to your organisation for user provisioning.
| Licence Type | Category | Supported |
| M365 E3 Restricted (without Apps for Enterprise) | National provision for NHSmail Enhanced Service Organisations | ✓ |
| F5 Security and Compliance* | National provision for NHSmail Enhanced Service Organisations | ✓ |
| M365 F3 (Without Windows & EMS except AADP) | National provision for NHSmail Standard Service Organisations | ✓ |
| Entra ID P2 | National provision for NHSmail Standard Service Organisations | ✓ |
| Exchange Online P2 | National provision for NHSmail Standard Service Organisations | ✓ |
| Defender for Office 365 F2 | National provision for NHSmail Standard Service Organisations | ✓ |
| Office 365 E1 | Top-Up (not required for Enhanced Service Organisations) | ✓ |
| Office 365 E3 | Top-Up | ✓ |
| Office 365 E5 | Top-Up | ✓ |
| Microsoft 365 E3 | Top-Up | ✓ |
| Enterprise Mobility + Security E3 | Add-On (not required for NHSmail Enhanced Service Organisations) | ✓ |
| Enterprise Mobility + Security E5 | Add-On (not required for NHSmail Enhanced Service Organisations) | ✓ |
| Entra ID P2 | Add-On (Only needed for Enhanced Service Organisations with a BYOL base) | ✓ |
| M365 Apps for Enterprise (*User only) | Add-On | ✓ |
| Microsoft Audio Conferencing (Dial-in) | Add-On | ✓ |
| Microsoft Teams Room | Add-On | ✓ |
| PowerBI Pro | Add-On | ✓ |
| Power BI Premium Per User | Add-On | ✓ |
| PowerBI Premium (Capacity Plans only) | Add-On | ✓ |
| Visio Plan 1 | Add-On | ✓ |
| Visio Plan 2 | Add-On | ✓ |
| Power Apps Per App | Add-On | ✓ |
| Power Apps Per User | Add-On | ✓ |
| Power Automate Per User | Add-On | ✓ |
| Power Automate Per Flow | Add-On | ✓ |
| Power Automate Attended RPA | Add-On | ✓ |
| Project Plan 1 | Add-On | ✓ |
| Project Plan 3 | Add-On | ✓ |
| Project Plan 5 | Add-On | ✓ |
| SharePoint Online Storage | Add-On | ✓ |
| Microsoft Teams Phone System | Add-On | ✓ |
| 120 minute Domestic Calling Plan | Add-On | ✓ |
| 1200 minute Domestic Calling Plan | Add-On | ✓ |
| Domestic and International Calling Plan | Add-On | ✓ |
| Microsoft Teams Phone with Calling Plan (country zone 1 – UK/Canada)) | Add-On | ✓ |
| Microsoft Teams Premium | Add-On | ✓ |
| Microsoft Teams Premium (Intelligent Recap) | Add-On | ✓ |
| Microsoft Teams Audio Conferencing | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 2vCPU 4GB/256GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 2vCPU 8GB/128GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 2vCPU 16GB/128GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 4vCPU 16GB/128GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 4vCPU 16GB/256GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 4vCPU 16GB/512GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 8vCPU 32GB/128GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 8vCPU 32GB/256GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 8vCPU 32GB/512GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 16vCPU 64GB/512GB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Windows 365 Enterprise 16vCPU 64GB/1TB | Add-On | ✓ |
| Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise (Device) | Add-On | ✓ |
*For F5 security and Compliance details regarding specific feature configuration and enablement will be shared with Local Administrators via the existing BAU channels (webinars, support site, release notes). These features will be prioritised in alignment with the NHSmail security roadmap.
NHSmail Nationally Provided Licences
There are two national licence offerings: the NHSmail Standard Service and the NHS Enhanced Service. The licence offering for each service has been assigned based off the user requirements for the organisation. For more detail on the offering assignment please see NHSmail Licence Overview and Migration Approach – NHSmail Support. Each organisation will only be part of one service with no action required of LAs to set this up. The nationally provisioned licences for each are as follows:
NHSmail Standard Service:
- M365 F3 FUSL Sub Per User (Without Windows & EMS except AADP)
- Microsoft Entra ID P2 K SU Microsoft Entra ID P1 K
- Exchange Online P2 SU Exchange Online Kiosk Per User
- Defender M365 F2 Sub Per User
NHSmail Enhanced Service:
- Microsoft 365 E3 Frontline Worker (Restricted – without M365 Apps for Enterprise)
- F5 Security & Compliance*
*Details of specific feature enablement’s will be shared via existing LA collaboration channels.
Local administrators can identify a national licence subscription in ‘User Policies’ within the portal via the below naming convention:
- “ODS Code.Licence.NationalPolicy”
More details in managing these policies can be found here – User Policy Management Guide.
How to check my organisation(s) assigned NHSmail Service:
Local Administrators can follow the steps below to confirm their organisation’s NHSmail Service profile:
- Login to the NHSmail portal with your nhs.net credentials and visit Admin > User Policy Management
- Create a new policy by clicking on Add > Create User Policy
- Using the drop-down menu, select the organisation you wish to check
- Using the drop-down menu, view all base licences available to your organisation. In addition to top-up licences, this list will include one nationally provisioned licence type:
- If the available national licence reads ‘Organisation – National – Microsoft F3 – Date’, this means the organisation will receive the NHSmail Standard Service
- If the available national licence reads ‘Organisation – National – Microsoft E3 – Date’, the organisation will receive the NHSmail Enhanced Service
Top Up Licence Types
If organisations would like access to services beyond those nationally provided, they have the option to procure Top-Up Microsoft Online Services licences from their licence reseller or Microsoft Licencing solution provider LSP. E1, E3, E5 and Exchange Online (Plan 2) will provide users with larger mailboxes (50GB & 100GB respectively), as well as other feature sets which are further explained in the Functional Comparison documentation.
Organisations can follow the on-boarding guidance to load these Top-Up licences into the NHSmail tenant. Once provisioned, when creating User Policies – Local Administrators will have the option to select the E1, E3 or E5 subscription in the ‘Base Licence’ field. Alternatively, if the organisation has purchased an Exchange Online (Plan 2), when creating User Policies – Local Administrators will have the option to select this licence type from the ‘Add-on’ field.
Local Administrators can identify this subscription in User Policies through the below naming convention:
- Base Licence: ORG – ODS – Local – Office 365 Enterprise E1/3/5 – Date
- Base Licence: ORG – ODS – Local – Microsoft 365 E3/5 – Date
- Add-On Licence: ORG – ODS – Local – Exchange Online (Plan 2) – Date
The applications available through the Nationally Provided and Top-Up licences can be toggled on and off when setting up a User Policy.
Add-On Licence Types
Like Top-Ups, organisations can procure Add-On licences and allocate to users where appropriate. The same on-boarding guidance can be followed to onboard these licences onto the NHSmail tenant.
There are two key differences that Add-On licences have compared to Top-Up licences.
- Add-On licences have to be applied in addition to a Base Licence.
- When the Add-On is added to a policy, all the applications and functionality provided by the Add-On will be applied automatically.
There is currently no option to toggle specific Add-On features on/off. This is particularly relevant for the Apps for Enterprise Add-On, further information is included below:
Apps for Enterprise: When applied as an Add-On, all the different M365 applications included within this licence type will be enabled by default. These are included below and are not currently configurable through toggles:
- Forms (Plan 1)
- Office Web
- Office Desktop
- Sway
- OneDrive for Business (Plan 1)
- Whiteboard
It is the local organisation’s responsibility to determine if it is appropriate to enable this functionality for their users subject to local risk appetite and Data Protection policies on offshoring. Applications such as Whiteboard and Sway host data outside of the UK, this is not an exhaustive list and full details can be found here.
Please consult Microsoft documentation and your licence reseller for further information on procuring Microsoft 365 Add-On licence types.
For more guidance on managing and allocating access to M365 licences, Top Ups and Add-Ons please visit the User Policy Management Guide.
As per the January 2024 renewed licencing agreement between NHSmail and Microsoft, there are some top-up and add-on licences which are no longer required. For more information please visit the on-boarding guidance.
If you already have Teams Rooms Standard licences on your active Enterprise Subscription Agreement (ESA) you are able to purchase more and these will work with resource mailboxes. It is likely that the majority of NHS organisations have renewed or are renewing their ESAs and must now purchase Teams Rooms Pro.
Teams Rooms Pro is not natively supported in the Portal. If you have purchased this licence please review the following guidance – https://support.nhs.net/knowledge-base/adding-surface-hub-to-ms-teams/
Un-supported services
The NHSmail M365 Service doesn’t currently support use or integration with the below subscriptions or services. These include, but are not limited to:
• Azure Information Protection
• Office Store
• Dynamics 365
| Last Reviewed Date | 18/10/2024 |
