The challenge

Automation in the NHS struggles to scale. High upfront investment requirements, short-term budget constraints, legacy systems, fragmented procurement processes, and the hidden costs of redesigning workflows all combine to prevent individual tools from becoming system-wide capabilities. Organisations that can see the value of automation often cannot access it without committing capital they do not have, on timelines their budgets cannot support.

The Digital Productivity Platform (DPP) addresses this directly by offering a pay-as-you-go model for intelligent automation. This is a first for the NHS, enabling organisations of any size, financial status, or digital maturity to access automation without significant upfront investment. Rather than buying a system, organisations buy outcomes: processes automated, time released, errors reduced.

Getting to that point required building something that did not previously exist within the NHS system, navigating governance approvals, onboarding complexity, a mid-programme technology pivot, and the challenge of pricing something new in a market that had not yet learned how to value it.

Our approach

TPHC designed, built, and scaled a multi-organisation automation platform, establishing governance pathways, onboarding frameworks, and a flexible commercial model aligned to NHS requirements.

Before anything could go live, the platform had to meet NHS governance standards: information governance approvals, clinical safety considerations, and data protection requirements. Each approval strengthened the foundation, ensuring the platform was not just functional but safe, compliant, and aligned to how the NHS expects things to work. The key learning from this phase was straightforward: in healthcare, you do not earn the right to move fast until you have proven you are safe.

Onboarding presented a different challenge. Each NHS organisation is its own ecosystem, with different systems, processes, and priorities. To address this, the team codified the onboarding process, creating structured customer onboarding packs, guidance, and engagement frameworks to help organisations move more confidently and consistently.

Mid-programme, a key part of the technology landscape shifted, requiring a rapid pivot to a multi-platform model. What could have been a setback became a strengthening moment. The team moved from reliance on a single system to a more flexible, resilient model, better positioned for the future direction of the market. Cross-platform capability now increases resilience to future technology changes.

The commercial model evolved alongside delivery. The pay-as-you-go model was refined through each client engagement, moving from a simple usage-based mechanism to one that explains cost, benefit, predictability, and long-term impact. Replicable frameworks now simplify and accelerate adoption for new NHS organisations joining the platform.

The impact

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (LGT) became the first NHS organisation to go live on the DPP in April 2025, redeploying six existing HR automations. The six processes automated cover New Starter Forms, ESR Trac Vacancy Link, HealthRoster Reporting, Self Service for New Starters, Reference Requests, and NMC Revalidation communications.

During 2025/26, the platform delivered 69,000 minutes (1,150 hours) of automated HR activity across recruitment, rostering, compliance, and employee lifecycle processes, releasing 0.8 WTE. This has enabled the team to absorb increased demand without additional headcount growth.

Automation has removed repetitive manual administrative activity, enabling a more equitable distribution of work and freeing staff to focus on higher-value activities. Expansion at LGT has been rapid, extending across Outpatients, Finance, Cancer services, Information Systems and Data, EPR Migration, and Pharmacy. The DPP starts with automations in one area, then scales as value is demonstrated.

The DPP has established replicable frameworks that simplify and accelerate adoption for new NHS organisations. A G-Cloud 15 listing, expected in September 2026, will open the platform to NHS trusts and public sector buyers nationally through the Crown Commercial Service’s Digital Marketplace, supporting the ‘analogue to digital’ shift outlined in the NHS 10-Year Plan.

What our clients say

“Onboarding the DPP has meant our teams have been able to remove some of the admin burden for more simple and straightforward tasks, enabling them to focus on more interesting and value-added work as well as being able to be more responsive to increased workload without significant increases in the team. The Trust has grown significantly over the last ten years whilst our ESR and Recruitment teams have remained relatively lean and not grown by the same percentage, but have ensured we continue to deliver excellent services with minimal errors or complaints thanks to the automation and time saved through the DPP. We have also been able to tackle certain tasks that we didn’t have capacity for, such as ESR self-service set-ups, which are now processed in a much more efficient manner. We are starting to think about other services and processes that could be automated and the pay-as-you-go model makes it easier to quantify how we can work up proposals and the art of the possible.”

Eric Pirozzoli, Deputy Chief People Officer, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

“The automation support has removed repetitive manual administrative activity from the team’s day-to-day workload. While the tasks themselves are straightforward, completing them manually required time and attention that could be better used elsewhere. Automating this has improved efficiency and consistency, reduced the risk of manual error, and freed up capacity within the team to focus on higher-priority recruitment activity and improving service delivery. Having this automation in place has meant the team is not tied up with repetitive admin and can spend more time actually supporting managers and candidates. We’ve been able to be more responsive and proactive with hiring managers, which has improved engagement and reduced delays in communication. Candidates are also getting clearer and quicker updates, which has helped improve their overall experience.”

Isimeme Egbuniwe, Head of Recruitment, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

Ready to start a conversation? Find out more about our Digital Productivity services, read more case studies from our work in digital and innovation, or get in touch with one of our specialists to discuss your challenges.

More about our consulting work

Case studies hub

Browse the full set of case studies, across all nine service areas

Digital and Innovation case studies

More case studies from our digital and innovation work.

Working with us

Our approach to working with clients, and what you can expect from a relationship with TPHC.

Contact us

Get in touch with our team to discuss your requirements and how we can support you to achieve your goals.