Skip to main content

Single Sign-On

A service to make it simpler, faster and more secure for NHS health and care workers to sign in to access digital services.

Page contents

About this service

Single Sign-On aligns national identity services with local systems to make it easier for health and care workers delivering NHS services to sign in to digital systems.

Its goal is to reduce duplication and remove unnecessary steps while health and care workers perform their day-to-day tasks. This will save time, lower support demand, and create a more consistent and reliable experience across the NHS.

Single Sign-On is made up of:

  • National Identity Verification Service - a consistent, high-assurance identity verification process for staff onboarding and pre-employment checks
  • Staff Index - a person-centric, single and unique identifier that links workforce identities and associated accounts
  • National Single Sign-On - a single login that lets health and care workers securely access the systems and information they need

Single Sign-On is commissioned through the Core Infrastructure programme and the Identity and Access Management / Single Sign-On workstream. This is a multi-year piece of work to discover, design, pilot and roll out services to the NHS.

Who this service is for

Single Sign-On is designed for:

  • health and care workers across the NHS and partner organisations
  • organisations delivering or using clinical and operational systems for the NHS
  • suppliers integrating national identity and access capabilities

Benefits

For health and care workers
  • Faster, simpler access to systems and information
  • Fewer passwords to remember and manage
  • Fewer interruptions when moving between applications
For organisations
  • Consistent access management across systems
  • Reduced administrative overhead in managing identity and access
  • Greater confidence through a nationally consistent, standards-backed approach to identity and access
For patients
  • More staff time focused on delivering care
  • Greater confidence that access to patient information is secure and appropriately managed

How this service works

We verify health and care workers once, create a single trusted identity, and use that to give them seamless access across NHS systems.

Single Sign-On overview image showing how each of the 3 parts of the service interact

National Identity Verification Service

A consistent, high-assurance identity verification process for staff onboarding, supporting pre-employment checks across the NHS.

Read more

Staff Index

A single, authoritative record of workforce identity - linking people to their roles, their employing organisations and their access permissions. 

Read more

National Single Sign-On

A national capability that lets health and care workers securely access the systems and information they need using a single login. 

Read more

How to access this service

This service is in development. During the initial phases, we're looking for organisations to help us design, test and pilot Single Sign-On. Find out more.

Roadmap

Now
  • Ready for private beta: CIS2 ADFS integration for use with local Active Directory
  • Password management discovery
  • Single browser Single-Sign-On design
Next
  • Password replay alpha
  • Shared devices discovery
  • Fast user switching discovery
  • Switch user role discovery
Later
  • Password replay private beta
  • Shared devices alpha
  • Fast user switching alpha
  • Switch user role alpha

Contact details

If you have any questions or need further support, you can get in touch with the Single Sign-On team at [email protected]

For operational issues, such as login issues, password resets and problems with system access, contact the National Service Desk:

Last edited: 30 September 2026 10:16 am