NHS Digital: The Health and Social Care Network Programme : NHS Digital

The Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) Programme was initiated to:

  • establish a marketplace of HSCN suppliers
  • establish central capabilities to support HSCN
  • support NHS organisations to procure HSCN, and
  • to replace the previous national NHS network arrangements known as N3.

The expectation was that HSCN would provide the underlying network connectivity to enable the integration and transformation of health and social care services, by enabling health and care organisations to obtain public (internet) and private network services over a single connection at highly competitive prices, while being able to share information more reliably, flexibly and efficiently.