The Teams shared channels functionality will provide the ability to directly invite a user from an external partner organisation to a channel. Once the user’s account has been added to the shared channel, they can collaborate in the channel without the need to switch tenants. For further information, please refer to the Teams Shared Channels Overview article.

A Teams shared channels should be used when there is a need to collaborate with a user from an external partner organisation. People outside of the NHSmail tenant will be able to participate in a shared channel without switching profiles. For further information, please refer to the Teams Shared Channels Overview article.

To enable shared channels functionality for collaboration with a new external organisation (domain), an external organisation (domain) that has already been configured for shared channels, or with internal NHSmail users, please refer to the Teams Shared Channels LA Guide.

The ‘Create’ request found here can be used by NHSmail organisations looking to configure a new external domain, that is not yet listed here, for B2B Direct Connect. For further details regarding how to configure a new external domain and the required actions for Local Administrators, please refer to the Teams Shared Channels LA Guide.

The ‘Edit’ request found here can be raised by NHSmail organisations on behalf of a third party domain looking to modify an existing configuration. Edit requests must be submitted by an NHSmail organisation on behalf of the third party looking to modify an existing configuration. For further details regarding how to edit an external domain and the required actions for Local Administrators, please refer to the Teams Shared Channels LA Guide.

The ‘Delete’ request found here can be used by NHSmail organisations looking to remove the B2B Direct Connect configuration for an nhs.net organisation. For further details regarding the deletion of an external domain and the required actions for Local Administrators, please refer to the Teams Shared Channels LA Guide.

For full details and step by step instructions on how to set up a Teams shared channel, please refer to the Using Teams Shared Channels article.

In order to invite a user to a shared channel, shared channel members need to be shared channel Owners. Shared channel members cannot invite external users even if they are configured with a shared channel policy to invite external users, they must be an Owner. Teams members cannot invite external users even if they are configured with a shared channel policy to invite external users, they must be a Teams Owner. For further information on how to add members to a Teams shared channel, please refer to the Using Teams Shared Channels article.

It is the responsibility of Teams shared channel Owners to manage access for Joiners, Movers and Leavers (JML), as is reflective of the existing JML processes in place for Teams across NHSmail. Shared channel Owners need to add joiners, remove users that have transferred to another organisation, and remove users that have left NHSmail. Users are not automatically added or removed from the Team shared channel membership and will need to be managed by Team shared channel Owners.

Any shared channels you are a member of will appear in your Teams client. You can access the shared channels as you would in any other Teams channels, by clicking the name of the channel. For information on how to access Teams shared channels, please refer to the Using Teams Shared Channels article.

For full details and step by step instructions on how you can communicate in a Teams shared channel, please refer to the Using Teams Shared Channels article.

For full details and step by step instructions on how to manage in a Teams shared channel, please refer to the Using Teams Shared Channels article.

Incidents related to Teams shared channels can be raised via the Raise an Incident form for the Portal on the Helpdesk Self-Service (HSS) platform.

Reporting on the Teams shared channel policies assigned to users can be accessed via the ‘Admin Reports’ page. A new shared channels report has been introduced to provide a summary of the shared channel policies applied to users. If no shared channel policy has been applied to a user, they will not appear in report.

All the accessibility features currently supported by Microsoft Teams consist of the following: screen read (Windows Narrator), live captions, zoom (Windows OS feature), high contrast mode, and immersive reader. All of which are available when using a shared channel for collaboration.

Stream, Planner, and Forms features are currently unable to be hosted within a Teams shared channel. For further information regarding available features within Teams shared channels, please refer to the Using Teams Shared Channels article.

Please see below the table highlighting the limits associated with Teams shared channels.

The Teams policies control which shared channels features are available to users. The permissions associated with the Teams shared channel policies that are applied will dictate the extent to which users can collaborate.

Users assigned with Teams shared channel policies will be able to communicate and collaborate with all external domains configured for Azure B2B Direct Connect.

For full details and step by step instructions on how to assign policies in a Teams shared channel, please refer to the Teams Shared Channels LA Guide.

Reporting on the Teams shared channel policies assigned to users can be accessed via the ‘Admin Reports’ page. A new shared channels report has been introduced to provide a summary of the shared channel policies applied to users. If no shared channel policy has been applied to a user, they will not appear in report.

If you are added to the shared channel, depending on your permissions, you will be able to access any of the files and folders attached. These permissions are replicated in the automatically created SharePoint.

The ownership of the data will remain with the hosting organisation, even if information has been uploaded by colleagues from other organisations.

For further information, please refer to the Teams Shared Channels LA Guide.

Each shared channel has its own SharePoint site. The separate site is to ensure access to shared channel files is restricted to only members of the shared channel. These sites are created with a document library by default, and can be easily enhanced to a full-featured site through the site management interface. For further information, please refer to the Using Teams Shared Channels article.

For an overview of the owner and member responsibilities for shared channels regarding the ownership of actions for channel management, please refer to the Teams Shared Channels LA Guide.

For shared channels hosted on the NHSmail tenant, data will remain stored within the tenant. Several types of data can be stored in as shared channel including Chat messages, Files, Meetings, and Meeting recordings. In all cases, this data is stored in the Teams instances of the tenant that is hosting the shared channel. For more information, please view the NHSmail Data Retention and Information Management Policy page.

Once an invitation has been accepted to join a shared channel, the below data will be visible to internal colleagues. The information shared is limited to:

• Email address
• First name
• Last name
• Photo
  

The current forensic discovery process is support and for more information please refer to the current Forensic Discovery Request guidance process. However, if the data is stored on the external tenant, a forensic discovery request is not available. This would then need to be requested through the external organisation.

In the NHSmail tenant, Microsoft Teams shared channels will follow the existing global data retention policy, which can be found here. Any data stored outside of the NHSmail in the external partners’ shared channel will be subject to their retention policy. The retention policy and process for external partners cannot be managed by the NHSmail service team.

If a sensitivity label is applied to the Team hosting the shared channel, the shared channel will automatically inherit that label. All restrictions from that sensitivity label will be applied to the shared channel.  As with Standard and Private channels, the sensitivity label is displayed on Posts tab as a reminder to users. A full list of the sensitivity labels currently available on NHSmail can be accessed here. For more information, please refer to the Sensitivity Labels Scope and Requirements overview page.

For more information, please refer to the additional guidance for Users and the guidance for Local Administrators.