About
What NHS Notify is
NHS Notify is programme of work which provides simple, scalable, cost effective and standardised ways to send and manage communications to patients in England.
Through an NHS Notify messaging account you can send communication requests directly to patients for care interventions, via NHS App messages, emails, text messages and letters.
Using different communications suppliers at competitive market rates, this removes the need to procure and integrate with multiple services individually.
10 Year Health Plan for England
The 10 Year Health Plan for England was published 3 July 2025 and commits to digital technology, AI and innovation to enhance NHS capability and continue the delivery of quality outcomes for all.
The plan focuses on shifting:
- hospitals to community
- treatment to prevention
- analogue to digital
NHS Notify is fundamental to many of the plan’s commitments.
Medium-Term Planning Framework
Published on 24 October 2025, the NHS Medium Term Planning Framework 2026/27 to 2028/29 recommits and expands on the 10 Year Plan.
Transitions start in the 2026/2027 financial year (April 2026), when all direct-to-patient communication services should be moved to NHS Notify. NHS App- based ‘push’ notifications are the preferred method of contact.
All providers should complete migration by the end of the 2028/2029 financial year (March 2029).
Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) must also transition all messaging to NHS Notify, using NHS App-based ‘push’ notifications as the default option. Use NHS Notify to send:
You can send messages in bulk or individually.
Access NHS Notify
Features
Send messages based on your needs
Send messages to groups of recipients without their contact details
You only need a person’s NHS number to send them messages. Learn how to tell us who you want to message.
Create specific cohorts of recipients by using Cohorting as a Service (opens in a new tab).
Write your messages
Create reusable templates for the message channels you want to use.
Once you’ve created a template you can:
Plan how your messages will be sent
Routing plans allow you to send messages to audiences more effectively and sometimes at lower costs.
You can set up routing plans to:
- use certain templates for specific audiences
- message a recipient with each channel in a specific order
- set up fallbacks for messages that fail
- stop sending messages after a channel is successful
Prevent sending people unnecessary messages
NHS Notify uses the Personal Demographics Service (opens in a new tab) to automatically prevent you from messaging recipients you cannot message.
Reach people with additional needs
You can use NHS Notify to:
See how your messages perform
Track how many messages you’ve sent and find out which ones are not being delivered.
Automatic sending
To send messages automatically, you’ll need a developer to integrate with the NHS Notify API.
Read our API documentation (opens in a new tab).
Keep your data secure
Learn more about NHS Notify’s security features.
Get support when you need it
NHS Notify is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and supported from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays.