NHSMail Shared Mailbox Information for Owners
It is important that all owners of shared mailbox fully understand their responsibilities. If the mailbox is not managed correctly, this can result in clinical risk.
Shared Mailbox Owner Responsibilities:
- Owners of a shared mailbox are responsible for all content
- There must be a minimum of 2 owners per shared mailbox
- Owners are responsible for ensuring that only the correct staff are given appropriate access to a shared mailbox
- Owners of a shared mailbox are responsible for authorising members / owners, and must ensure they are removed when they no longer require access e.g. they leave their role or the Trust
- When an Owner leaves the organisation or changes their role, it is their responsibility to inform the Service Desk who the replacement owner(s) are, and to ensure the new owner(s) are aware of their responsibilities
- When a shared mailbox is no longer required, it is the owner’s responsibility to ensure all emails are deleted and an out of office is added to the mailbox before a request is logged with Digital Services to delete the mailbox
Note: Shared mailboxes that have not sent an mail for over 6 months will be identified via communications from the national NHSMail Team. These communications are sent to the mailbox owner advising that the mailbox will be deleted after a specified period of time. Shared mailboxes with an inactive status will be eligible for deletion.
A bounce-back / undeliverable message will not be returned to the sender when a mailbox is inactive.
How to request for a shared mailbox
If your department / Team require a shared mailbox, the ‘Owner’ must request this on the Service Desk portal on the service request “New Shared Mailbox”. The owner must confirm they are aware of their responsibilities before the request is raised
How ‘Owners’ delegate access to other members / owners
Owners of shared mailboxes with delegated access can manage shared mailboxes via Outlook Web App where they can edit add & remove members & owners. A guide for owners on how they can add / remove to members / owners can be found here
How to request to delete a shared mailbox
If a shared mailbox is no longer required, an owner must raise a request on the Service Desk portal to delete the mailbox using the service request ‘Delete Shared Mailbox’.
Before the request is raised, the owner is responsible for ensuring:
For further guidance for owners on managing shared mailbox permissions click here
For further information on shared mailboxes click here