Mission 1

National cloud and infrastructure services continued to operate at increased scale during 2025/26, underpinning the availability and resilience of critical digital services across NHS Wales.

These services supported approximately 2400 servers and 900+ databases, providing the hosting, connectivity and integration required for national applications and platforms.

National integration and messaging services processed around ~200 million secure digital system‑to‑system messages, enabling secure data exchange across primary, secondary and community care.

Document and results services handled on average 780,000 care documents and 1.6 million test results each month, supporting timely access to information across organisational boundaries and care settings.

While migration to cloud‑based services continues, experience has increasingly shifted focus toward operational resilience rather than transition alone.

During 2025/26, activity prioritised service availability, disaster recovery, monitoring and security alongside cost control. Further emphasis will be placed on observability, sustainability and capacity planning to ensure national infrastructure remains robust as digital dependency and demand continue to grow.

Cyber security remained a critical enabling function throughout 2025/26, providing national oversight, assurance and coordinated incident response within a shared‑responsibility model across NHS Wales. Our Security Operations Centre (SOC) and Cyber Resilience Unit (CRU) deliver 24/7 monitoring and system‑wide assurance for national platforms and services, improving early detection, response coordination and recovery planning. During the year, national cyber services processed on average 11 billion events and more than 100 TB of telemetry, providing real‑time visibility of activity across cloud and on‑premise environments. Targeted work extended SOC coverage to additional cloud workloads and critical software, strengthened use‑case development and tuning, and improved mean time to detect/respond for priority alerts.

The CRU led national assurance activity, including assessments against recognised frameworks and supplier due‑diligence for key services, and supported readiness through tabletop exercises and lessons‑learned reviews following sector incidents. Together these actions support compliance with ISO 27001 and the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations, reduce residual risk, and protect clinical systems and patient data as digital dependency grows.

Our Priorities for 2026/27 include extending integration between SOC telemetry and service observability, improving vulnerability management across diverse estates, and continuing system wide maturity uplift so that organisations can evidence consistent controls while maximizing the availability of national digital services.

Client Services provides the day‑to‑day foundation for accessing national digital systems, delivering a fully managed desktop and device service across NHS Wales. In 2025/26 the service operated at considerable scale, supporting approximately 16,500 users across 500+ sites, including primary care and secure environments. Coverage included 369 GP practices and 173 devices in prisons, providing a consistent, security‑hardened build and a common support model. The team continued an iterative device‑refresh programme, updating around 3,000 devices, and progressed Windows 11 adoption alongside modern deployment methods to reduce downtime and improve user experience. Service reliability and security remained central. Client Services standardized systems and devices and strengthened identity controls, making it easier for frontline staff to sign in, including the use of biometrics where it was appropriate.

In 2026/27, the focus will move from one‑off upgrades to ongoing endpoint management. This includes better monitoring, better‑matched devices, and more self‑service for common requests such as software installs and password resets. These changes will help maintain service quality as demand grows, reducing costs, and ensuring staff have secure, reliable access to national systems.

Desktop Support is the managed desktop service we offer to our supported organizations. Our performance metrics, or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), are set by Service Level Agreements with each organization.

During the reporting period, Desktop Support managed approximately 16,417 incidents, alongside 12,441 service requests. Incidents typically relate to faults or technical issues affecting devices, while service requests cover planned activities such as access changes, configuration updates and equipment provision. Resolution performance is tracked against agreed timescales, with 97.27% (High); 95.12% (Low) of incidents and 98.12% (High); 95.62% (Low) of service requests completed within target.

Together, these measures provide assurance that Desktop Support services continue to operate effectively, maintaining service availability and minimizing disruption to frontline operations. Ongoing performance monitoring supports continuous improvement, enabling the service to identify trends, respond to emerging pressures and adapt capacity to meet demand across NHS Wales.

The national Service Desk continued to act as a single front door for digital support across NHS Wales during 2025/26. The Service Desk processed approximately 222,095 tickets, achieving a call answer rate of 97.1% and customer satisfaction of 97%.

The Service Desk plays a key role in sustaining service availability during national rollouts and infrastructure change, with ongoing improvement focused on automation, knowledge‑led support and improved triage.

We help keep NHS Wales digital services running securely and consistently, so people can access care more easily and staff can make safe decisions using the right information. The metrics highlighted below show the scale of the digital estate, the level of activity happening every day behind the scenes, and the practical improvements that are already reaching the public.