NHS contracts, targets and rates
Record the practice's NHS England contracts, each contract year's UDA and UOA targets, the performers on each contract, and read the band rates in force.
NHS configuration lives in two settings pages under NHS in the settings hub, visible to roles with the NHS permission at a UK practice. Both cover England only in this release.
These pages are for practices in the United Kingdom. A practice in another country does not see them, and the API refuses NHS requests from one.
Contracts
Settings → NHS contracts lists the practice's contracts. Each carries its contract number and NHS location number as NHSBSA prints them, the site it is claimed from (an English location), its kind (GDS, PDS or PDS Plus) and its start and end dates. Archive a contract that has ended; its years and performers stay readable.
Contract years and performers
Settings → NHS targets shows one contract at a time.
- Set a year records the year's UDA and UOA targets and unit values as the contract letter states them. Saving the same start date again replaces that year. Years of one contract never overlap.
- Add performer links a practitioner to the contract with their performer number and target. The number is also recorded on the practitioner's identifiers, so credential history keeps it. One open target per performer and contract: click End today on the current one before adding a replacement. An ended target is never edited.
Activity
The Activity card shows the contract year covering today: the UDA target, the activity awarded on imported schedules, the activity still in flight on submitted claims, and a run-rate forecast (delivered so far, scaled to the whole year) with the share of the year elapsed. A table breaks the same figures down per performer against each performer's own target.
Pay schedules
Click Import schedule each month with the schedule exported from Compass. The export needs a header row with these columns:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
line_ref | The schedule line identity (required, unique in the file) |
nhsbsa_reference | The reference Compass gave the claim |
awarded_uda | Activity awarded on the line |
awarded_pounds | Amount awarded on the line, in pounds |
dispute | Y when the line is disputed |
The file is kept exactly as received before anything is read from it. Each line is matched to the submitted claim of this contract carrying that NHSBSA reference and recorded as the claim's completed outcome with the award. A line with no matching claim, or naming a claim that is not waiting, is parked with a task on the Today page so someone records the outcome by hand. Importing the same file again does nothing (the practice sees "already imported"); a file that cannot be read is kept for review and refused.
Rates in force
The same page lists the band rates in force today with the frozen evidence each came from. The list is read-only: rates are written by Smileline from captured official sources, never typed in. From 1 April 2026 the English patient charges on file are £27.90 for Band 1 and for an urgent course, £76.60 for Band 2 and £332.10 for Band 3 (SI 2026/265 regulation 16, as published on nhs.uk); the urgent course also carries its £75 activity-derived remuneration.
A value that no captured source carries is blank. A course of treatment on a band without its rate is refused until the evidence is captured; nothing is estimated or defaulted. The same rule prices the default NHS band items on Fees & prices: they take the statutory patient charge on file and stay unpriced until it is captured — the Defaults card says so.