NHS England has published a preliminary market engagement notice with a total value of up to £110 million, hoping to inform the future of children’s digital health services.
The engagement aims to determine whether the market can meet the needs and requirements of the programme, to understand an appropriate budget range for any potential solution sought, and to gather information on potential routes to market.
“A new delivery area has been established within the digital prevention services portfolio of the NHSE Transformation Directorate to bring together the products and services used for preventative child health, and to deliver a more ambitious vision of using digital and data to transform how prevention services for children are delivered and improve the health of children and young people in England,” NHSE states.
Ambitions are to modernise services including the child health information service, antenatal and newborn screening programmes, and a digital alternative to the Red Book. The wider vision, according to NHSE, is to develop a suite of digital and data services to support preventative health and care services for children, requiring “an approach that does not just digitise processes, but rethinks healthcare delivery to support changing behaviours and lifestyles through information, advice and support, drawing on understanding of motivations and behaviours, and tapping into the potential of new technologies, including artificial intelligence”.
Data flows will be improved to support the delivery of children’s health services, and those working in maternity, health visiting, or elsewhere on the frontline will be enabled to record outcomes through the NHS App or digital Red Book, NHSE reports.
Estimated contract dates are given as July 2027 to June 2030, with a possible extension to June 2031. Interested suppliers are asked to complete an RFI document by the deadline of 6 July 2026. A webinar is also set to take place on 16 June at 2pm to explain the programme’s aims and requirements.
Wider trend: Digital in children’s health
Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHFT) has noted its intention to award a contract with a value of £30,000 to WYSA LTD for the provision of a digital service to support children and young people with mental health and wellbeing. Services supplied under the contract will help toward the “getting help” element of the trust’s “I Thrive” model, it states, based on the identified needs of children and young people across Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. More than 150 evidence-based exercises are supported by the service with exercises and videos, covering thought reframing, relaxation techniques, behavioural activation, anxiety, and low mood.
NHS England has awarded a contract with a value of up to £1.5 million to Digibete C.I.C. for a national digital education platform to support children and young people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. The contract is a call-off from a framework agreement, set to run from May 2026 to May 2031, for a total period of five years. The platform is described as “universally available”, designed to host condition-specific content to promote self-management for children and young people living with the condition.
HTN caught up with Daniel Ray, CTO at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s (BWC) NHS Foundation Trust, to learn more about what went into the development of the trust’s new digital strategy, covering key points, ambitions, and hopes for the future. “BWC went live with Epic in May of last year, which was an unbelievable feat that was three or four years in the planning and a huge team effort, but it has been a massive leap forward in our digital and data setup,” he said. “The last five years has been about doing the groundwork and improving our infrastructure, and the strategy is going to help us with where to go from here.”
