NHS England’s protracted efforts to launch a national accounting and finance system for the health service has been hit by further delays, HSJ understands.
The new “integrated single financial environment” was previously expected to go live in April this year – an already delayed target for a project that was tendered four years ago with a proposed go-live date of summer 2021.
Development did not begin until late 2022 when NHSE procured the new service for a £100m price tag. But now HSJ has been told by a source familiar with the programme that system leaders have pushed the launch back to October 2025 in a move the finance bosses said was disappointing but preferable to a rushed implementation.
The next iteration of the system, “ISFE2”, should provide NHSE, integrated care boards, commissioning support units and other entities with a single integrated system to handle the £170bn of funding that flows from NHSE and ICBs to provider trusts and primary care.
However, ISFE2’s procurement has been dogged by problems. The first wave of delays were related to covid but the setbacks have persisted well beyond the peak of the pandemic.
In November 2023 an internal email sent to senior NHS leaders said the deadline was going to be pushed back by up to six months. The NHS Shared Business Services and NHSE teams developing the new system had “decided to invest more time to ensure the service, system, and all NHS organisations are in a strong operationally ready position prior to transition”, it said.
News of the latest delay comes after the government’s watchdog for overseeing major national projects gave it a red rating in its annual review covering 2023-24, published in January 2025. This means “there are major issues” and “successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable”. This is the second time the Infrastructure Projects Authority has given the ISFE programme a red rating, with the first coming in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, it received an amber rating, meaning “successful delivery is feasible but significant issues already exist, requiring management attention”.
In March 2024, following a red rating in a quarterly review by the IPA, NHSE brought in consultants from Deloitte to provide “expertise and support to get the programme back on track”.
This initial contract was for eight weeks from March to June, at a cost of £99,000. The next quarterly IPA review in May was back to amber, however “the IPA was clear that additional support was essential and should be continued”. NHSE then agreed a new deal with Deloitte to provide a year’s worth of support, running from July 2024 to June 2025.
The new contract came with a total maximum cost of £4.75m, though “wherever possible NHSE will use alternative resource to reduce the cost”, according to the procurement notice. ISFE2 will be a unified, cloud-based system that should increase efficiency by automating financial processes. NHS Shared Business Services was commissioned to provide the service in December 2022, priced at £108.2m, spanning eight-and-a-half years.
NHS SBS is a joint venture between the Department of Health and Social Care and French technology firm Sopra Steria, which has been providing the precursor ISFE since 2012. Emma Knowles, the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s director of policy and communications, said: “Our members are disappointed that the implementation date for ISFE2 has been deferred again, but they would prefer a delay over implementing a system that has been rushed through development and testing.
“As the ICBs themselves need time to engage with user acceptance testing they are keen that the implementation timetable is not truncated unnecessarily so that all of ISFE2’s expected benefits can be fully realised.” An NHSE spokesperson said: “A decision was taken to extend the planning and testing for this highly complex critical national infrastructure and a revised launch date in 2025 for the new system will be communicated shortly.
“The current system and service continue to operate as normal and we remain committed to the successful delivery of this next-generation national finance system, ensuring that services, the system, and users are operationally ready for its arrival.”
NHS SBS referred questions to NHSE.
Source: HSJ
Date: 27 February