NHS England awards Netcompany £215m screening deal

NHS England has appointed Netcompany as digital delivery partner for its national adult screening programmes in a five-year partnership worth more than £215 million.

The agreement covers all seven national adult screening services in England, including breast, cervical and bowel cancer screening, and supports about 15 million invitations a year.

Under the deal, Netcompany will run and update the digital systems used across the screening programmes while building new NHS-owned services. NHS England intends those systems to support a wider shift towards prevention and earlier diagnosis.

The work includes a new national breast screening service and changes to cervical screening services, including digital invitations and the option of HPV self-testing kits at home.

The programme is intended to shorten the time between an invitation and a result, make it easier for people to take part in screening, and improve participation among communities that screening services have historically struggled to reach.

The new services will be built in the UK and controlled by the NHS. The project sits within the NHS Digital Prevention Services Programme, which is focused on replacing and improving the technology behind national screening pathways.

Supplier network

Netcompany will deliver the programme through a group of UK partners and has committed at least 33% of contract revenue to small and medium-sized businesses. The group includes dxw, Create /Change and Adroc, with Softwire acting as a scaling partner.

A Screening Innovation Fund will support SME-led proofs of concept, including work from businesses new to the public sector. Netcompany has also set a target for one in five supply chain businesses to be led by underrepresented groups.

The contract structure reflects a broader government push to use public procurement to widen access for smaller suppliers and spread spending across a broader supplier base. In practice, that means the screening programme will not rely on a single large contractor for all areas of delivery.

System overhaul

The screening systems covered by the deal are part of a national infrastructure that supports invitations, pathways and results across England. Replacing or updating those systems while maintaining existing services is a major operational task, as screening activity must continue without disruption.

Netcompany said the programme would build on work already completed by NHS digital prevention teams. The longer-term plan is to move screening towards more personalised pathways based on individual need rather than broad population groups.

Richard Davies highlighted the scale of the contract and the operational demands of replacing national screening systems.

"Screening saves lives, and this is one of the most important and ambitious digital programmes anywhere in government. We are proud to have been chosen to help deliver it. Replacing national systems at this scale while keeping screening running without interruption is a serious engineering challenge, and it is the work we do best. We will build modern, secure, data-driven platforms that allow the NHS to target screening with a precision that legacy systems were never designed to deliver. By directing meaningful investment into UK SMEs, we aim to leave behind a stronger and more resilient digital health supply chain," said Richard Davies, UK Country Managing Partner at Netcompany.

The partnership begins in September 2026 and is one of the larger NHS digital contracts tied directly to prevention services, with screening remaining a central route for detecting disease earlier and speeding access to treatment.