National Identity Verification Service

The National Identity Verification Service supports health and care workers onboarding into NHS organisations.

About the National Identity Verification Service

The National Identity Verification Service is part of Single Sign-On.

It will provide:

a certified digital identity verification process for onboarding and moving between organisations
right to work checks for UK and Irish nationals, and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) information to support a DBS check
a digital, user-led process that health and care workers can complete anytime, anywhere
integration with existing (such as Care Identity Management and Electronic Staff Record) and new services (such as Staff Index) that require an identity check as condition for access

Why it is important

We have a requirement to ensure that the digital verification service offered by NHS England is provided by a certified supplier registered on the statutory digital verification services (DVS) register and meets the NHS Employers Identity Checks standard.

The NHS PeoplePortal, formerly known as Future Workforce Services (FWS), and Transforming People Services (TPS) programmes have identified the need for a single, central service providing a standardised capability for identity checks during onboarding.

A large proportion of checks are completed manually and often in person, requiring new joiners to travel and NHS administrative staff to complete the checks. Digitising the process will standardise the approach, reduce manual intervention and save time.

Benefits

The service provides:

a consistent, high-assurance verification process, available to all NHS workforce onboarding teams

fewer manual checks and less travel time - a digital process health and care workers can complete when and where they want

validated identity data feeding into downstream services

alignment with NHS and government onboarding standards, and compliance with national assurance frameworks

lower costs through a single national capability, with better commercial terms than the current fragmented arrangements as volumes of digital checks grow

reduced administrative overhead, with improved auditability and security across the NHS

a scalable platform for future integration with national systems and services, reducing the need for repeated identity checks

More information

Single Sign-On readiness assessment

How we understand identity and authentication pain points from an organisational perspective, and how we evaluate the ability to partner in Single Sign-On pilots.

Help us design, test and pilot Single Sign-On

We are looking for frontline NHS organisations to help us design, test and pilot a national Single Sign-On solution.

Last edited: 29 September 2026 10:39 am