High-visibility framework and transaction infrastructure for temporary labour chains.
Retake control of labour supply chains, without compromise.
Balancing modern labour supply is difficult.
Small PSLs improve oversight but restrict flexibility at ground level, and allowing more open supply-lines creates visibility-gaps and introduces a complex web of downstream financial and legislative risk.
ICCE exists to close that gap.
We give contractors the free tools to take control labour supply chains, and total visibility over every action performed.
Using ICCE, contractors create a Framework, apply rules that restrict who can supply, under what conditions, and against which project or package, then invite preferred agencies to participate. ICCE then routes the resulting engagement, payroll and evidence activity through its platform, enforcing the Framework controls and giving contractors real-time visibility over the downstream data created in the chain.
Project Frameworks
Data on risk, finance and social value is controlled, captured and made visible.
Project Frameworks are where ICCE becomes practical for contractors. It takes 10 minutes to create a Framework, input the project context, define the relevant supply criteria, and invite approved agencies to participate.
This small change creates ongoing value. Agencies continue to fulfil labour demand, using ICCE to coordinate with workers. From there, the Framework makes every engagement, worker status, payroll-linked value, compliance record, risk signal and social value outcome visible.
ICCE is designed so that all material activity is timestamped, attributed, validated and preserved as it progresses, creating a tamper-proof historical chain of events for review, reporting and precise audit reconstruction.
The data can then be separated, filtered or aggregated as needed: by project, agency, region, role, worker, engagement, reporting period or framework, giving teams granular assurance, visibility and a clearer project-level evidence position.
Financial
Connect temporary labour activity to project spend, site, region and agency throughput.
Review cost exposure by project, package, region, role, agency, worker, engagement or reporting period.
Support finance reconciliation, supplier comparison, project controls, commercial review and clearer visibility over where labour cost is created.
Risk & Compliance
Understand who was engaged, which agency supplied them, on what terms, and what activity occurred.
See data on status, acceptance, commencement, completion, cancellation, amendments, evidence and whether the record is complete enough to support review.
Social Value
Evidence a project's fair work treatment and responsible labour practice.
Connect and resolve social value claims to real evidenceable worker engagement, pay-route and project records.
Support ESG reporting, public-sector bid evidence, responsible procurement review and clearer explanation of how temporary labour was routed and treated.
Agency Relationships
Agency onboarding and their experience with the platform.
Swipe to view the full dashboard.
For Contractors:
ICCE empowers the existing contractor-to-agency relationship. By inviting preferred agencies to participate in a Framework, familiar suppliers continue to fulfil demand, with ICCE overseeing the activity, creating a clearer, more controlled and reportable route.
To ensure suitability and ensure eligibility to supply, agencies are onboarded to a minimal standard contractors can take assurance from, with relevant assurance checks performed, including: KYB/KYC and director checks, VAT and financial checks, contract and policy review, insurance evidence, funding support and payment clearing.
Contractors can manage agency selection centrally, keeping PSL control at senior level, or allow regional and site teams to select agencies at their discretion. Either way, agencies must register and onboard before supplying through a Project Framework.
Once onboarded, agencies can be lnked to individual Project Frameworks. A single agency can be linked to one framework, another to multiple frameworks, or several approved agencies can support the same framework. Either way, permissions, activity and reporting are manageable where most suitable, at project level.
For Agencies:
ICCE drives value to agencies through participation in a cleaner way to demonstrate suitability, coordinate activity and evidence their role in a contractor’s labour chain.
Once registered, agencies can instantly demonstrate supply-readiness, by quoting their platform ID. Instead of repeating a full supplier onboarding conversation, dual recognition of ICCE onboarding-success can move conversations more directly to Framework participation where the agency is suitable for the project.
The platform also supports their high-intensity, day-to-day workflow, with tools for scheduling, worker communication and live placement activity.
ICCE also provides data visibility improvements to agencies, who also receive their own financial, compliance, risk and activity reporting, with audit-grade evidence available to support contractor assurance, agency review, insurer discussion, funder visibility and audit or regulator response where applicable. Driven by a standardised, demonstrable, non-umbrella, PAYE-only, true employment route, reducing route ambiguity and giving workers a clearer flexible working experience.
Financial Risk Positioning
A simple solution to the current risk-heavy landscape.
Temporary labour risk is no longer only a question of whether an agency or payroll company was approved. Contractors increasingly need to understand and evidence on what basis a worker was engaged, who paid them, what tax treatment was applied and whether the evidence trail supports the intended position.
Existing external engagement routes each carry their own advantages, limits and residual risks. Agency PAYE, umbrella employment, PSCs, CIS treatment, self-employment and other downstream arrangements can all appear workable in isolation, but become more difficult to assess when they interact with overlapping rules on status, tax, worker treatment, relevant parties, fraud, deductions, recovery and supply-chain evidence.
Understanding that route interplay formed a significant part of the research that led to ICCE. Findings from the 2025/2026 research positions labour-linked financial risk as increasingly difficult to identify, attribute, quantify, control or mitigate where the engagement route is unclear, distanced or fragmented beneath the contractor’s supply chains.
To enable delivery at scale, ICCE developed and deploys its own route: ICCE Controlled Employment. It's purpose being to provide a cleaner alternative than existing external routes, which preserve agency fulfilment, while reducing the opportunity for misapplication, misuse, route drift or ambiguity beneath the labour chain.
Chain type
ICCE Controlled Employment
Heatmap status
The route is deliberately structured around true employment, PAYE-only operation, worker-level evidence, transparency and route exclusion. Umbrella, CIS labour-only, PSC, offshore payroll, mini-umbrella, disguised remuneration or unknown downstream worker-paying routes are all excluded from ICCE delivery be design.
ICCE does not claim that all temporary labour risk disappears. It creates a narrower, controlled, PAYE-only route where selected activity can be restricted, governed, systematically-enforced and evidenced and reviewed with greater confidence.
Click to open.
Temporary labour route-risk heatmap
Compares common temporary labour engagement routes by relative financial, legislative and evidential risk.
Click to open.
Temporary labour route-risk heatmap
Compares common temporary labour engagement routes by relative financial, legislative and evidential risk.
Low risk
Cleanest route profiles
Contractor Direct PAYE
Cleanest contractor-controlled route, but administratively heavy and costly.
ICCE Controlled Employment
Intended to preserve agency fulfilment while narrowing scoped activity into a controlled, PAYE-only, non-umbrella, non-PSC route.
Low / medium risk
Controlled if maintained
Agency Direct PAYE
Potentially an acceptable external route if PAYE discipline is maintained.
Medium risk
Depends on site reality
Contractor Direct CIS Works Package
Viable where the subcontractor controls and delivers a real works package. Not suitable for labour-only works.
High risk
Visibility & control weaken
Contractor Direct CIS Labour-Only
Simple chain, but contractor owns and carries the PAYE/CIS boundary and defensibility risk.
Umbrella PAYE
PAYE route, but visibility and control are poor. Significant exposure remains if the umbrella fails to operate correctly.
Agency Direct CIS Labour-Only
Significant employment-status risk. Unsustainable for both agency and contractor.
PSC / Offshore / Secondary Chains
Higher-risk routes where control, status, payment route or chain visibility weakens.
Very high risk
Prohibit / avoid route
Mini Umbrella / Disguised Remuneration
Artificial or avoidance-led payroll structures hidden beneath the chain. Unbounded extreme high-concern route.
Payroll Company Operating Non-PAYE (Purported Umbrella)
Payroll-like entity operating CIS & self employed routes, creates extreme recovery exposure for agencies and contractors.
View route descriptions +
Contractor Direct PAYE: the contractor engages the worker directly and operates the employment, payroll and payment route itself.
ICCE Controlled Employment: the agency creates engagements within contractor-defined supply criteria, while ICCE enforces PAYE-only, true employment treatment with the worker.
Agency Direct PAYE: the agency supplies the worker to the contractor and operates PAYE employment directly with the worker without drift or intermediary support.
Contractor Direct CIS Works Package: the contractor engages a subcontractor to deliver a defined works package, with the subcontractor responsible for its own delivery and labour arrangements.
Contractor Direct CIS Labour-Only: the contractor engages an individual or labour-only party through CIS for site labour rather than a defined subcontracted works package.
Umbrella PAYE: the agency supplies the worker, but the worker is employed and paid by a separate umbrella company in the chain.
Agency Direct CIS Labour-Only: the agency supplies labour to the contractor while the worker or labour-only party is paid through CIS rather than PAYE employment.
PSC for Labour-Only Work: the worker provides labour through a personal service company, with the contractor or agency engaging the company rather than the individual directly.
Offshore Payroll Chain: the worker supply route includes an offshore payroll, employment or payment entity between the agency, worker and contractor activity.
Deep Secondary Agency Chain: the contractor engages one agency, but the worker is sourced, supplied, employed or paid through additional downstream agencies or intermediaries.
Mini Umbrella / Disguised Remuneration: the worker is routed through small payroll entities or alternative remuneration structures sitting beneath the apparent supplier route.
Purported Umbrella / Non-PAYE Payroll Company: the route presents as umbrella or payroll support, but worker payment is handled through CIS or another non-PAYE treatment.
A complete risk heatmap and associated legislative context is available in research paper CLCRH-001.
Click to open.
Financial risk considerations reviewed in ICCE route design
A summary of the legislative, commercial and evidential considerations that informed ICCE Controlled Employment.
Click to open.
Financial risk considerations reviewed in ICCE route design
A summary of the legislative, commercial and evidential considerations that informed ICCE Controlled Employment.
| Consideration area | Why it matters | ICCE Controlled Employment positioning |
|---|---|---|
| PAYE / NIC | The route needs clarity over who employs the worker, who operates PAYE, who accounts for tax and NIC, and how payroll-linked values are evidenced. | ICCE Controlled Employment is positioned as a PAYE-only true employment route, designed to avoid uncertainty around the worker-paying party and payroll operation. |
| Umbrella exposure | Umbrella and umbrella-like arrangements can create uncertainty around employer identity, deductions, worker treatment, PAYE recovery and downstream chain responsibility. | ICCE-routed activity is designed as non-umbrella employment. Umbrella payroll, purported umbrella arrangements and unknown payroll entities are excluded from the controlled route. |
| CIS boundary treatment | CIS can be appropriate for genuine subcontracted works packages, but labour-only supply through CIS creates route, status and recovery risk. | ICCE Controlled Employment is not a CIS route. Scoped worker activity is positioned through PAYE employment rather than CIS labour-only treatment. |
| PSC / off-payroll working | Labour-only activity routed through personal service companies may create status, SDS, fee-payer and PAYE/NIC exposure. | ICCE Controlled Employment does not rely on PSC or outside-IR35 treatment. The route is structured around direct worker employment for scoped activity. |
| Commercial warning signs | Labour pricing needs to be capable of supporting lawful employment costs, deductions, holiday pay, pension treatment, employer costs, overhead and margin. | ICCE is designed around transparent payroll-linked values and controlled payment pathways, making route economics easier to evidence and review. |
| VAT / supply-chain fraud | Input tax and supply-chain reliance may be questioned where transactions are connected to fraud or where parties knew, or should have known, about route defects. | ICCE improves route visibility by connecting project activity, agency participation, worker engagement and payment-linked records inside a controlled evidence trail. |
| Invoice and funding reliance | Invoice values and funding reliance are stronger where they can be connected to real project activity, worker-level records and payroll-linked evidence. | ICCE is designed to connect labour values back to project frameworks, workers, agencies, reporting periods and payroll-linked outputs. |
| Worker cost treatment | Holiday pay, pension treatment, deductions, payslips and worker route information need to be clear, defensible and consistently evidenced. | ICCE Controlled Employment gives workers a clearer employment and pay route, with project-linked records and evidence available for authorised review. |
| Audit and recovery | If there is a dispute, audit, funder review, regulatory question or recovery attempt, the route needs to be reconstructable. | ICCE records are designed to be timestamped, attributed, validated and preserved so selected activity can be reviewed through a clearer historical evidence chain. |
| Reputation and social value | Labour-chain practices can affect responsible procurement, worker treatment, ESG reporting, public defensibility and social value claims. | ICCE supports fair-work, route clarity and responsible labour-chain evidence by linking worker activity, employment route and project context. |
| Route boundary discipline | It must be clear which activity is inside the controlled route and which remains outside scope. | ICCE applies to scoped Project Framework activity only, helping avoid broad assurance claims over labour flows that have not been brought into the route. |
This section is not legal, tax, employment-status, insurance, procurement or financial advice. ICCE evidence may support review, but does not replace adviser assessment or contractor decision-making.
social value outcomes
Social Value and ESG relevance to ethical workforce engagement.
From the outset, ICCE was built around the principle that; Flexible-workforces should be able to understand their engagement, employer, pay route and working life with the same practical confidence as those in more permanent roles.
Many flexible professionals rely on temporary placements as a primary source of income. That makes clarity around engagement, pay, deductions, holiday treatment, employer identity and dispute resolution more than an administrative concern.
Research published in ULESV-001 examines how umbrella and payroll-intermediary routes can affect worker understanding, ethical procurement, social value, ESG and public defensibility.
Where umbrella, purported umbrella, CIS labour-only, PSC, offshore or opaque payroll routes are permitted inside a labour chain, the worker experience can become harder to explain and harder to evidence. That can sit uncomfortably beside commitments to fair work, transparency, responsible procurement and positive worker outcomes.
ICCE creates a practical ESG and ethical improvement opportunity by enabling contractors to systematically exclude risk-heavy and unethical routes from defined Project Frameworks and enforce a single, PAYE-only, true employment route instead.
The result is not simply a cleaner risk position; it is a worker route that is easier to understand, easier to explain and easier to evidence. Workers receive clearer information about their engagement, employer, pay route and working activity, while contractors gain evidence that can support fair work, ESG, responsible procurement and tender-response narratives.
The table below shows how ICCE evidence can align with recognised social value categories. The key improvement is the controlled removal and displacement of umbrella, purported umbrella, CIS labour-only, PSC, offshore and opaque payroll routes as permitted routes within downstream chain activity; in order to create and evidencing a clearer worker treatment, pay-route transparency, fair work and supply-chain accountability at project level.
Click to open.
Social value framework alignment
Indicative alignment between ICCE worker-route evidence and recognised social value framework areas.
Click to open.
Social value framework alignment
Indicative alignment between ICCE worker-route evidence and recognised social value framework areas.
| Framework reference | What the category is testing | ICCE evidence position |
|---|---|---|
|
PPN 002 1b Fair working conditions |
Whether the contract workforce has fair conditions, worker engagement, issue-escalation routes, understanding of working arrangements and good practice cascading through the supply chain. | ICCE can evidence worker engagement status, worker-facing route information, acceptance history, project attribution, agency participation and controlled employment records. |
|
PPN 002 1c Fair pay practices |
Whether pay practices are fair, transparent and capable of being explained to the workforce. | ICCE supports PAYE-only true employment, payroll-linked values, worker pay-route clarity and reduced ambiguity around umbrella-style deductions or assignment-rate confusion. |
|
PPN 002 1e Modern slavery risk |
Whether supply-chain labour risks are mapped, mitigated, monitored and supported by worker rights, grievance and escalation mechanisms. | ICCE gives contractors project-level visibility over agencies, worker engagements, route exclusions, worker-paying route clarity and controlled labour-chain activity. |
|
PPN 002 3a Diverse supply chain |
Whether the supplier can work with a diverse supply chain while maintaining accessible, fair and collaborative subcontracting or supplier participation. | ICCE allows contractors to keep preferred agency flexibility while applying project-level participation controls, onboarding assurance and route evidence across agencies. |
|
PPN 002 6c Inequality in employment, skills and pay |
Whether inequality in employment, skills and pay is understood, monitored and addressed in the contract workforce and supply chain. | ICCE can support structured visibility by project, role, agency, region, worker route, engagement record and payroll-linked values. |
|
PPN 002 8a Support health and wellbeing in the contract workforce |
Whether the contract workforce is supported with physical and mental wellbeing, accessible support, financial literacy and practical workforce confidence. | ICCE gives workers clearer engagement, employer, pay-route and communication visibility, helping reduce uncertainty around how work is accepted, managed and paid. |
|
Example TOMs alignment NT22 Ethical employment practices |
Whether procurement contracts include commitments to ethical employment practices in the supply chain, including relevant labour and anti-slavery expectations. | ICCE can help connect ethical employment commitments to actual agency participation, worker-route records, PAYE-only engagement and project-level evidence outputs. |
|
Example TOMs alignment NT58 Real Living Wage / pay improvement |
Whether workers on a contract receive pay improvements linked to Real Living Wage or higher pay commitments, where relevant to the tender or local framework. | ICCE can support pay-linked evidence where contractors need to explain worker route, payroll-linked values, project attribution and pay-treatment visibility. |
|
Example TOMs alignment NT74 Worker representation / supply-chain voice |
Whether worker representation or equivalent worker voice mechanisms are present and encouraged in the supply chain. | ICCE can support evidence of worker communication routes, engagement records, issue visibility and supply-chain labour transparency. |
This table is indicative only. Exact scoring, codes, evidence requirements and weighting depend on the tender, buyer, framework version and evaluation methodology used. ICCE does not guarantee social value scoring; it provides a stronger evidence base where fair work, worker transparency, responsible procurement, ESG or payroll-route clarity need to be shown.
Reporting & Evidence
One source of reporting evidence for the whole to work from.
ICCE turns temporary labour activity into a single source of agreed market truth by capturing activity inside a controlled environment, updating it in real time, and translating it into actionable evidence for each party in the chain.
Every project, agency link, worker engagement, PAYE route, payroll value, lifecycle event and exception creates data that matters to someone in the chain. ICCE captures that data as activity happens, preserves its source context and makes the relevant parts available as trusted information to the parties authorised to use it.
Without a controlled environment, that evidence is difficult to gather reliably. Contractors, agencies, workers, funders, insurers, auditors and regulators may all need insight into the same activity, but the relevant facts often sit across separate systems, supplier records, payroll outputs, invoice packs, emails and after-the-event summaries.
That fragmentation creates cost. Parties spend time reconciling records, requesting evidence, checking declarations, responding to reviews and trying to reconstruct what should have been clear at the point activity occurred.
ICCE changes the position by giving each party a more powerful view of the same underlying activity.
Contractors more easily understand project-level labour usage, route discipline and financial insights. Agencies are able to evidence worker treatment and route compliance, precise trading volumes and suitability for work opportunities. Workers experience clearer real-time and historical views of their engagement, employer, pay route and overall working life.
Funders better understand the labour activity behind payroll-linked value. Insurers review clearer route, engagement and evidence conditions. Regulators and auditors can work simply and quickly from structured records instead of disconnected submissions.
ICCE was developed specifically for this purpose, to be:
For.Every.One.
Learn more about ICCE