Anglian Water switches healthcare trust suppliers

EXCLUSIVE: Anglian Water is to launch a new healthcare trust on 1 July.

The scheme will be available to the utilities firm’s 4,000 employees. Its manager population, of around 100 staff, will also be able to add their dependents onto the scheme.

The organisation has offered a healthcare trust for some years but was coming to the end of its existing contract.

Sally Purbrick, head of reward at Anglian Water, said: “As an organisation, we went to a full tender process. None of the big players in the field could offer us anything new and exciting.”

The organisation selected provider Alliance Surgical, which is part owned by consultant surgeons, due to the direct access to consultants and its bespoke package.

“It’s a new relationship and something new being brought to the table,” she added. “Being a smaller organisation, it is able to adapt more to our individual needs.

“There is also a greater buy-in to looking for future opportunities in terms of still providing a great healthcare scheme for our employees, but, at the same time, being able to manage costs for the organisation.”

Anglian Water began communicating the healthcare trust with internal bulletins on its intranet. Leading up to the launch of the scheme on 1 July, all employees will receive a letter and a new employee handbook posted to their home addresses.

Purbick added: “It is important that we are reassuring those employees who are currently claiming through the scheme that they won’t be disrupted by our move to the new supplier. Clearly, for some people, it can be a difficult time that they’re going through.”