The challenge
Having successfully supported the safe and effective legal merger of former NHS England (NHSE) with NHS Digital and Health Education, NECS was commissioned to enable the new NHSE structure.
Our response
NECS managed the programme in a hybrid manner tailored to suit the individual workstreams’ ways of working. This included engagement sessions, virtual meetings and interactive dashboards to effectively monitor and report progress to senior stakeholders. There were 36 deliverables identified as critical to the effective operation of the newly merged organisation, including the following key milestones:
Staffing restructure
- Supported the filling of posts implementation (FOPI) process for the Transformation directorate to achieve a smooth transition through the effective movement of functions and staff to the new organisation.
- NECS was instrumental in providing a robust central support function for implementation leads, HR Business Partners and the wider Directorate through effectively collaborating with stakeholders in those areas and the NHS England redeployment team.
Transition to one payroll provider
- Working closely with HR and finance colleagues, alongside external stakeholders, we supported the transition to one payroll provider, managing key dependencies to implement these changes within restrictive timescales.
Comprehensive review of workspace requirements
- Thorough review of the new organisation’s estates portfolio was undertaken, ensuring that clear information was available to all staff on how to access all buildings.
- An accessibility audit was undertaken to ensure space was suitable for all employee requirements.
Policy harmonisation
- Our team supported the delivery of a comprehensive 5-tranche harmonisation plan to provide a complete set of corporate policies accessible through a single policy library, ensuring uniformity throughout the organisation.

Outcomes
The activities completed streamlined and unified processes to enable staff to operate more effectively within the new organisation. Resulting organisational and staff benefits included:
Workforce
- The smooth transition of 3,500 individuals into new roles, with 120 appeals managed.
- 980 vacancies, recruited to, through >250 interviews, and associated moderation.
Streamlined and unified processes
- Seamless transition to a single payroll provider.
- Harmonisation of key corporate policies.
- Single Unified Contract Management Framework.
Improved collaboration
- Facilitated relationships between colleagues from all three former organisations and enhanced collaboration across directorates and workstreams.
- Programme Director and Implementation team provided with key updates to enable and track effective project delivery.
- Successful nhs.net migration, transitioning staff to the nhs.net environment.
Positive staff experience
- Provided all staff with access to buildings within the new organisations estates portfolio that met their individual requirements
- Clear communication throughout the transitional period to ensure a positive staff experience of the change.
“I was really impressed by the approach taken by NECS colleagues, stepping into a whole host of programme areas and handling real complexity, and picking up projects at pace. The thing that kept us on track was the commitment and care of staff working across the programme to keep moving us forwards.”