High-visibility framework and transaction infrastructure for temporary labour markets.
Retake control of workforce supply, without compromising flexibility or cost.
Modern labour supply chains are difficult to balance.
Keeping a small PSL improves oversight but restricts flexibility at ground level. In contrast, allowing more open supplier networks creates downstream visibility gaps and introduces a complex web of financial and legislative risk.
ICCE exists to close that gap.
We give contractors the free tools and framework controls to preserve agency flexibility, define supply criteria and invite preferred agencies to participate.
ICCE then routes the agency activity through its rails, enforcing contractor controls and providing real-time, granular-level visibility over the downstream data produced within the chain.
Project Frameworks
Data covering risk, finance, compliance 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, all activity they create linked to each project becomes visible through the framework: engagements, worker status, payment-linked values, compliance evidence, risk signals and social value records.
ICCE is designed so 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. That gives teams granular 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.
Compliance
Understand who was engaged, which agency supplied them, on what terms, and what activity occurred.
See 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 evidencable 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.
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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 market's current risk heavy landscape.
Temporary labour risk is no longer only a question of which agency was approved. Contractors increasingly need to understand which route the worker actually travelled through, who paid the worker, what tax treatment was applied and whether the evidence trail supports the intended position.
ICCE Controlled Employment was developed from research into that route-risk problem. The aim is not to create another supplier layer, but to provide a defined external engagement route that preserves agency fulfilment while reducing ambiguity beneath the contractor’s labour chain.
The route is deliberately positioned around true employment, PAYE operation, worker-level evidence, project attribution and route exclusion. Scoped ICCE activity is not designed to operate through umbrella, CIS labour-only, PSC, offshore payroll, mini-umbrella, disguised remuneration or unknown downstream worker-paying routes.
ICCE does not claim that all temporary labour risk disappears. It creates a narrower, controlled, PAYE-only route where selected activity can be governed, evidenced and reviewed with greater confidence.
Cleaner route profile
ICCE Controlled Employment
PAYE-only, true employment, project-linked, worker-evidenced and framework-controlled.
Controlled if maintained
Agency Direct PAYE
Potentially acceptable where PAYE discipline and route clarity are maintained.
Context dependent
CIS works package
Dependent on genuine subcontracted output, contract terms and site reality.
Excluded from ICCE route
Umbrella, CIS labour-only, PSC, offshore and opaque routes
Higher-risk routes where worker-paying party, tax treatment, deductions or chain visibility may weaken.
Financial risk considerations reviewed in ICCE route design
A summary of the legislative, commercial and evidential considerations that informed ICCE Controlled Employment.
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.
Technical operating basis
ICCE is valuable because the data is created through a controlled route.
ICCE is not designed as a reporting layer placed over temporary labour activity after the event.
It is designed as a controlled operating route. Selected labour activity is connected to a defined project context, fulfilled by authorised agencies, handled through governed engagement records, linked to payroll-ready values, and represented through structured evidence outputs.
The value is created because the data is generated by the route itself. Each material event can be attributed, timestamped, validated and reconstructed without relying solely on supplier summaries, invoice schedules, email trails or manual spreadsheets.
ICCE therefore does not simply make temporary labour more visible. It changes the quality of the record beneath that visibility.
Controlled activity model
ICCE is built around a route-control model.
For selected activity, the contractor does not need to rely only on agency approval, supplier declarations or retrospective audit packs. The activity is brought into a defined operating route where the project context, agency participation, worker engagement, payroll-linked values and reporting evidence can be connected.
This matters because contractor risk does not usually arise from one missing document. It arises when the route itself is unclear.
| Control layer | What is controlled | Evidence created |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor context | The project, package, site, region, trade category, labour category or agency flow that brings activity into scope. | Project-coded attribution showing where the activity belongs. |
| Agency participation | Which agencies are authorised to fulfil selected activity through the ICCE route. | Agency participation record showing who was permitted to fulfil the requirement. |
| Labour requirement | The demand record before fulfilment and worker engagement. | Requirement origin, source context, role or trade requested, timing and project linkage. |
| Fulfilment response | The agency response to a scoped labour requirement. | Fulfilment state, agency response evidence, partial fulfilment or non-fulfilment record. |
| Engagement pathway | The proposed worker engagement before lifecycle progression. | Engagement creation evidence, required input status, validation outcome and creation lineage. |
| Worker-level record | The worker’s engagement status, acceptance, activity, completion and relevant route evidence. | Worker-linked activity trail rather than supplier-level summary only. |
| Lifecycle state | Creation, acceptance, authorisation, commencement, completion, cancellation, closure and amendment states where applicable. | Timestamped state history showing how the activity progressed. |
| Hours pathway | Worked-time submission, review, dispute handling and finalised payroll-ready values. | Hours evidence, amendment history, dispute position and payroll-readiness status. |
| Payroll-linked value | Payroll-related values connected to the relevant worker, project and engagement context. | Financial attribution, payroll-linked record and reconciliation basis. |
| Reporting output | Role-specific reporting for authorised parties. | Contractor, agency, finance, compliance, audit, social value and risk views from the same underlying activity trail. |
| Boundary discipline | Whether the activity is inside or outside ICCE scope. | Clear distinction between controlled activity and activity that remains outside the route. |
The control model is not intended to replace the contractor’s commercial judgement, procurement process or agency relationships.
It is intended to give those relationships a cleaner operating route for selected activity.
Controlled activity model
ICCE is built around a route-control model.
For selected activity, the contractor does not need to rely only on agency approval, supplier declarations or retrospective audit packs. The activity is brought into a defined operating route where the project context, agency participation, worker engagement, payroll-linked values and reporting evidence can be connected.
This matters because contractor risk does not usually arise from one missing document. It arises when the route itself is unclear.
| Control layer | What is controlled | Evidence created |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor context | The project, package, site, region, trade category, labour category or agency flow that brings activity into scope. | Project-coded attribution showing where the activity belongs. |
| Agency participation | Which agencies are authorised to fulfil selected activity through the ICCE route. | Agency participation record showing who was permitted to fulfil the requirement. |
| Labour requirement | The demand record before fulfilment and worker engagement. | Requirement origin, source context, role or trade requested, timing and project linkage. |
| Fulfilment response | The agency response to a scoped labour requirement. | Fulfilment state, agency response evidence, partial fulfilment or non-fulfilment record. |
| Engagement pathway | The proposed worker engagement before lifecycle progression. | Engagement creation evidence, required input status, validation outcome and creation lineage. |
| Worker-level record | The worker’s engagement status, acceptance, activity, completion and relevant route evidence. | Worker-linked activity trail rather than supplier-level summary only. |
| Lifecycle state | Creation, acceptance, authorisation, commencement, completion, cancellation, closure and amendment states where applicable. | Timestamped state history showing how the activity progressed. |
| Hours pathway | Worked-time submission, review, dispute handling and finalised payroll-ready values. | Hours evidence, amendment history, dispute position and payroll-readiness status. |
| Payroll-linked value | Payroll-related values connected to the relevant worker, project and engagement context. | Financial attribution, payroll-linked record and reconciliation basis. |
| Reporting output | Role-specific reporting for authorised parties. | Contractor, agency, finance, compliance, audit, social value and risk views from the same underlying activity trail. |
| Boundary discipline | Whether the activity is inside or outside ICCE scope. | Clear distinction between controlled activity and activity that remains outside the route. |
The control model is not intended to replace the contractor’s commercial judgement, procurement process or agency relationships.
It is intended to give those relationships a cleaner operating route for selected activity.
Evidence integrity model
The strength of ICCE is not only that records exist. The strength comes from how those records are created, connected and preserved.
A record is more useful when it can be traced back to the event that created it, the party or system action responsible for it, the validation that permitted it, the timestamp that fixed it in sequence and the later output that relied on it.
ICCE is therefore designed around evidence integrity rather than simple data display.
| Integrity requirement | Meaning | Public-facing value |
|---|---|---|
| Attributable events | Each material action or state change is linked to a party, authorised user, system event or source context. | Reduces ambiguity about who did what and why a record exists. |
| Timestamped records | Material events are recorded with time context and sequence. | Supports chronology, dispute review and audit reconstruction. |
| Validation-gated progression | Key transitions require defined checks before activity progresses. | Reduces informal bypass, incomplete progression and retrospective correction. |
| Lifecycle state history | Engagement activity preserves its state changes across creation, acceptance, commencement, completion, cancellation, amendment and closure where applicable. | Allows later review of how the activity moved through the route. |
| Immutable audit trail | Historical records are preserved without destructive overwrite. | Supports audit, investigation, dispute handling and evidential confidence. |
| Amendment history | Changes are recorded as amendments or later events rather than silently replacing prior records. | Allows reviewers to see what changed, when it changed and who changed it. |
| Versioned outputs | Reports, evidence packs and derived outputs can preserve version context. | Prevents later reports from obscuring what was visible or relied on at a given time. |
| Lineage preservation | Outputs link back to source records and transformation steps. | Makes reports and evidence packs reconstructable rather than merely presentational. |
| Permissioned views | Different parties may receive different views based on authorisation and purpose. | Supports multi-party use without changing the underlying record. |
| Reconciliation logs | Matching, discrepancy detection, missing linkage and exception states are preserved. | Supports finance, audit, risk and operational review. |
| No shadow truth | Reporting outputs do not replace or rewrite the underlying activity record. | Prevents dashboards from becoming an uncontrolled second source of truth. |
| Boundary preservation | Records distinguish activity inside ICCE scope from activity outside scope. | Prevents ICCE evidence being misread as assurance over uncontrolled external activity. |
Evidence integrity matters because temporary labour risk often becomes visible only later: during audit, dispute, payment review, procurement review, funder diligence, social value reporting or regulatory scrutiny.
At that point, the question is rarely just whether a document exists. The question is whether the route can be reconstructed.
Contractor-facing evidence outputs
The purpose of ICCE evidence is not only internal system control. It is to give authorised contractor teams clearer information about selected temporary labour activity.
Different teams need different views of the same labour flow. A project team may need operational status. Finance may need cost and payment-linked values. Compliance may need route evidence. Social value teams may need worker-route and fair-work evidence. Audit teams may need chronology, attribution and reconstruction.
ICCE is designed so those views can be produced from the same underlying activity trail.
| Output area | Example output | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| Project labour usage | Labour activity by project, package, trade, site, region, agency flow or reporting period. | Project teams, commercial teams, operations. |
| Agency fulfilment | Which approved agency fulfilled which scoped requirement, and what response state applied. | Procurement, operations, commercial, compliance. |
| Worker engagement evidence | Worker-level engagement status, acceptance, activity state, completion status and route-linked record. | Compliance, audit, operations, agency management. |
| PAYE route evidence | Evidence that scoped activity has been routed through the intended PAYE employment pathway. | Legal, tax, compliance, audit. |
| Route exclusions | Evidence that scoped activity is not being treated as umbrella, CIS labour-only, PSC, offshore or unknown downstream payroll activity. | Compliance, legal, tax, procurement, audit. |
| Payroll-linked values | Gross pay, statutory deduction values, employer-linked values, net pay and payroll item references where applicable. | Finance, payroll review, audit, funder review. |
| Financial attribution | Labour values connected to project, package, agency, worker, engagement and reporting period. | Finance, commercial, project controls. |
| Payment status visibility | Payment-preparation status, instruction state, payroll-output reference and reconciliation position where applicable. | Finance, commercial, risk review. |
| Dispute and amendment history | Submitted hours, amendments, dispute events, resolution status and finalised values. | Operations, commercial, finance, audit. |
| Social value support | Worker-route clarity, fair-work evidence, PAYE-route visibility and responsible procurement evidence connected to project activity. | Social value, ESG, bid teams, public-sector reporting. |
| Audit reconstruction | Source event trail, timestamps, attribution, validation records, reporting version and evidence pack lineage. | Internal audit, external audit, advisers, regulators where applicable. |
| Exception reporting | Missing inputs, blocked progressions, route exceptions, reconciliation issues or incomplete evidence chains. | Compliance, finance, risk, operations. |
| Cross-agency view | Aggregated view across approved agencies fulfilling labour into the same contractor project or framework. | Contractor leadership, procurement, commercial, social value. |
| Counterparty-specific views | Different authorised views for contractor, agency, finance, audit or review purposes. | Stakeholders who need controlled access without changing the source record. |
The value of these outputs is that they are connected.
A contractor should not need one report to understand the agency position, another report to understand the payroll position, another spreadsheet to understand worker status, another supplier declaration to understand route treatment and another manual pack to evidence social value.
For selected ICCE-routed activity, those views should be capable of being traced back to the same controlled record.
Multi-party reliance model
Temporary labour activity is not reviewed by one party for one purpose.
The same labour flow may be relevant to the contractor’s project team, procurement function, commercial team, finance team, compliance function, legal and tax advisers, social value team, agency partner, funder, insurer or auditor.
Each party may need a different view, but the value improves when those views are derived from the same underlying activity trail.
| Party | What they need to understand | Why the same record matters |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor | Which activity is in scope, which agency fulfilled it, which workers were engaged and what evidence exists. | Supports project control, procurement oversight and supply-chain assurance. |
| Agency | Which requirements it is authorised to fulfil and what records are needed for compliant participation. | Supports cleaner client assurance and operational consistency. |
| Worker | What engagement route applies, how activity is recorded and what pay-route information is available. | Supports transparency and reduces route uncertainty. |
| Commercial team | What labour values relate to which project, package, supplier or reporting period. | Supports cost control, project attribution and reconciliation. |
| Finance team | What payroll-linked values, payment statuses and reconciliation records exist. | Supports financial review and evidential confidence. |
| Compliance team | Whether scoped activity followed the permitted route and whether required evidence exists. | Supports risk review and exception handling. |
| Legal / tax advisers | What facts, records and route evidence are available for review. | Supports adviser assessment without relying only on retrospective summaries. |
| Social value / ESG team | Whether worker-route clarity, fair-work evidence and responsible procurement evidence can be connected to project activity. | Supports defensible social value reporting. |
| Funder / insurer | Whether labour activity, payroll-linked values and evidence outputs can be traced through a controlled route. | Supports wider financial and risk review where applicable. |
| Auditor / regulator | What happened, when it happened, who authorised it and what records support the position. | Supports reconstruction, review and audit response. |
The objective is not to give every party unrestricted access to every record.
The objective is to preserve a coherent source trail so that authorised views can be generated for different purposes without changing the underlying meaning of the activity.
That is why ICCE should be understood as infrastructure, not just as a contractor dashboard.
Boundary and deployment discipline
ICCE’s credibility depends on clear boundaries.
It controls selected routed activity only. Activity outside ICCE scope remains outside ICCE unless separately adopted through appropriate review, documentation and controlled launch planning.
This boundary is not a weakness. It is part of the assurance position.
| Boundary point | Meaning | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Selected activity only | ICCE applies to defined project, package, trade, agency flow or other scoped labour activity. | Prevents broad assurance claims over uncontrolled activity. |
| Prospective route control | ICCE is designed to govern activity as it moves through the route. | Avoids pretending that historic labour chains can be cleaned up after the event. |
| Not a labour supplier | ICCE does not supply labour or select workers for contractors. | Preserves the distinction between agency fulfilment and ICCE infrastructure. |
| Not an MSP or procurement agent | ICCE does not replace contractor procurement or agency relationships. | Supports route control without repositioning ICCE as a managed service provider. |
| Not legal or tax advice | ICCE evidence may support review, but does not replace adviser judgement. | Keeps the system within its proper classification boundary. |
| Not a universal guarantee | ICCE does not guarantee labour availability, compliance outcomes or historic chain quality. | Prevents overstatement and keeps claims defensible. |
| Controlled launch required | Deployment depends on review, documentation, agency participation, system readiness and launch planning. | Supports responsible implementation rather than uncontrolled rollout. |
ICCE is not valuable because it claims to solve every temporary labour-chain issue.
It is valuable because it defines a narrower route where selected activity can be controlled, evidenced and reviewed with greater confidence.
ICCE is not a promise that all labour-chain risk disappears. It is a practical infrastructure model for improving the quality of selected labour flows.
Expressions of interest
Episodic is currently taking expressions of interest from suitable contractor and agency partners.
The first step is a 30 minute introductory call to discuss your organisation, relevant labour flows, framework-control requirements, agency participation and whether ICCE may be suitable for further review.
Where appropriate, further details can be shared after the introductory call, including documentation packs, NDA materials and route-specific discussion materials.
| Item | Position |
|---|---|
| Current status | Expressions of interest now open. |
| Suitable parties |
Contractors — closes 14 July 2026. Agencies — closes 29 July 2026. |
| First step | 30 minute introductory call. |
| Discussion scope | Labour flows, framework controls, agency participation, project suitability, reporting requirements and route-review considerations. |
| Further materials | Documentation packs, NDA materials and route-specific information may be shared where applicable after the introductory call. |
| Boundary | Further engagement remains subject to suitability review, documentation, confidentiality arrangements and controlled launch planning. |
Introductory discussions do not create legal, tax, funding, insurance, procurement or employment-status advice.