NHS awards national diabetes education contract to Leicester programme
pharmafile | August 12, 2026 | News story | |Â Â NHS, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, diabetes educationÂ
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) has been awarded a five-year contract to deliver NHS England’s Healthy Living service, providing digital structured education and self-management support for adults living with diabetes across England.
The service, which is due to launch in autumn 2026, will be delivered through the MyDESMOND platform, developed by the Leicester Diabetes Centre, a partnership between UHL and the University of Leicester. Promatica Digital will support the programme through technical delivery and integration with primary care systems.
The new contract expands the NHS Healthy Living service to include structured education and self-management support for adults living with type 1 diabetes for the first time, alongside an enhanced offer for people with type 2 diabetes.
Originally developed from research led in Leicester more than 20 years ago, the DESMOND (Diabetes Education and Self-Management for Ongoing and Newly Diagnosed) programme has become one of the world’s best-established structured education programmes for people living with diabetes.
The updated digital service will allow adults with diabetes in England to enrol directly, providing access to evidence-based educational resources, health tracking tools, online peer support and physical activity challenges designed to help people manage their condition more effectively.
Alison Northern, who will lead the service at UHL, said: “We are proud to have been awarded this contract, which enables us to bring 20 years of diabetes education expertise and our award-winning DESMOND self-management programmes to people living with diabetes across England.”
The service is intended to improve access to personalised diabetes education by enabling people to access support at a time and place that suits them, while helping to improve self-management and long-term health outcomes.
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