The Division of Well being and Social Care (DHSC) has awarded a contract value as much as £8 million to help its IT infrastructure as NHS England merges into the division.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer introduced plans in March 2025 to convey NHSE again into the DHSC with the aim of ending the duplication ensuing from two organisations doing the identical job.
An award discover, revealed on 15 October 2025, states {that a} contract has been received by Cognizant Worldwide to assist bolster the organisation’s IT infrastructure in preparation for the transition, which can see nearly all of NHSE’s operations moved into the DHSC.
Below the contract, which runs for 3 years from 1 October 2025 till 30 September 2028, Cognizant will “help the Purchaser [DHSC] with its transformation programme, which in the end entails the abolishment of NHS England and the switch of a lot of its capabilities to the DHSC”.
The purpose is “to help the design and implementation of the brand new division’s company IT infrastructure”.
The contract, awarded by means of the £500m Expertise Companies 3 framework, says that the programme to merge the 2 organisations “is a strategic collaborative to create a future-ready DHSC by integrating capabilities and personnel from NHS England”.
It provides: “The programme goals to construct a extra agile, mission-focused organisation able to main the well being and care system extra successfully.”
Cognizant can be included on the Digital Functionality for Well being framework 2, revealed in January 2025.
London-based know-how and technique consultancy Mozaic Sevices Ltd will function a sub-contractor delivering skilled providers on behalf of Cognizant, in keeping with the contract.
The information of NHSE’s abolition earlier this 12 months adopted bulletins from a number of senior leaders that they had been leaving NHSE, together with Amanda Pritchard, chief government, and Sir Stephen Powis, nationwide medical director.
Digital Well being Information contacted Cognizant for remark.
