NHS England Staff App Ideas Hackathon

In a dynamic and rapidly evolving workplace, staying ahead of the curve is paramount. NHS England, in partnership with INTEROPen, invites you to embrace the spirit of innovation and collaboration and join us for an exhilarating 2-day-in-person Ideas Hackathon. This exciting event is designed to harness the collective creativity of industry and care partners to revolutionise and enhance workforce services for NHS staff.

Date: 29th & 30th April, 2024

Time: Day 1: 9 am - 5.45 pm & Day 2: 8.30 am - 5.30 pm

Location: AI Playground, Google Offices, 123 Buckingham Palace Rd, London, SW1W 9SH

Deadline: Apply by Thursday, 25th April.

Apply to Register for the Ideas Hackathon
We'd absolutely love to have everyone join us for this exciting event, but spaces are limited. To ensure a diverse range of participants and skills, as well as representation across different themes, we will need to carefully review applications. Our goal is to confirm your place within 5-7 days following your application submission. Please note that while we appreciate your interest, applying does not guarantee a spot due to the limited capacity.

The NHS is one of the largest employers in the world, with 1.3 million staff in England alone. The NHS Staff App programme is on a mission to transform the NHS Staff experience by providing a modern, digital front door for a digitally-enabled employee experience, providing access to workforce services, anytime, anywhere – through the NHS Staff App.

The Ideas Hackathon seeks to engage a wide and diverse group of stakeholders in exploring ways to create a digital workforce ‘front door’ with multi-channel access to a range of digital services. Through collaborative idea generation and problem-solving, participants will develop user-centred design options for a user interface and the concept of a “super app” that seamlessly integrates with other applications.

Participants will have the flexibility to select and dive into one of our four priority areas identified as critical through our user research. During the event, you will tackle real world challenges within your chosen area, developing innovative solution to address the most pressing needs of NHS staff:

· Onboarding

· Training

· Rostering

· Core HR

· Identity and access

Day 1 will focus on immersion and exploration, with interactive user journey deep dives and collaborative learning.

· Kick-off: The event will commence with an opening ceremony, providing an overview of the hackathon, including the rules of engagement and what we hope to achieve together.

· Interactive user journey deep dives: Engage in collaborative sessions that delve into our main priority areas. In these discussions, we'll share the insights we've gathered, along with the service designs, UX designs, and technological architectures developed to date. Through these deep dives, you'll gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities at hand. This will allow you to begin ideating potential solutions, laying the groundwork for next day’s creative phase.

Day 2 will be dedicated to ideating, with focused team work and mentors available for guidance and support.

· Hands-on collaboration: As a team, choose one of the five priority areas to focus your efforts on. Collaborate with fellow participants and the NHS App programme team to co-create solutions, building upon existing designs and learnings from Day 1.

· Final presentations: Each team will have the opportunity to present their innovative solutions to a panel of judges through a short demo. The judges will evaluate the Ideas based on creativity, functionality, and potential impact. Winners will be announced, and prizes will be awarded to the most compelling solutions.

Anyone can take part in this Ideas Hackathon, as long as you’re there in person! We encourage anyone wishing to explore how digital, data, and technology improvements can support a more connected, informed, empowered, and mobile workforce to participate.

So please sign up if you’re:

· A workforce system provider or technology provider,

· Public sector or private company wishing to explore the use of workforce technologies to support NHS staff,

· A public sector or industry professional curious to get involved and help steer the development,

· Or a software developer keen to understand end-user needs.

While we wish we could accommodate everyone interested, our capacity is limited. Therefore, we will be vetting applications to ensure a diverse mix of attendees.

· Innovate for impact: Collaborate with forward-thinking peers to explore innovative concepts and solutions that address pressing challenges faced by the NHS workforce. Your Ideas have the power to make a tangible difference in the lives of healthcare professionals.

· Make your mark: Be at the forefront of a new major national initiative, lending your insights and expertise to help shape its direction and outcomes. By contributing your voice from the outset, you can play a crucial role in determining the course of this exciting NHS programme.

· Learn and lead: Seize the opportunity to both learn from and contribute to the NHS. Immerse yourself in understanding the needs, challenges, and priorities of the NHS workforce while also showcasing your skills and Ideas to address these head-on.

· Expand your network: Engage with NHS England colleagues and a diverse cohort of talented individuals from programming, design, entrepreneurship, and beyond. It's an interdisciplinary melting pot of creativity that connects you with key stakeholders and experts dedicated to improving the NHS.

Registration is free of charge, but you must apply to register in advance. To sign up, please reserve a ticket and complete the order form in full. We invite you to apply to register online by Thursday, 25th April. Spaces are highly limited, and we will carefully review applications to ensure a diverse group of participants.

To ensure all participants are well-prepared and informed, we will provide comprehensive briefing materials. These materials will be accessible through pre-event webinars available on the INTEROPen YouTube channel.

For additional insights and information about the NHS Staff App Programme, please visit our Futures page.

This preparatory content is designed to enhance your hackathon experience by equipping you with the knowledge and context needed to contribute effectively.

Join our Futures site HERE to access all hackathon-related updates, announcements, and materials. This platform will serve as your go-to source for all materials related to the hackathon.

We have an open forum available on our Futures site specifically for participants to post any questions about the hackathon process. Our team actively monitors this forum and will promptly answer your inquiries. We encourage you to leverage this resource, as posting your questions there allows others with similar queries to benefit from the shared knowledge.

You don’t need to have a team formed before the event. You have two options for attending: join as part of an existing team of up to 8 people, or join as an individual and we'll help you join a team on the day. Please indicate your preference on the registration form. If you're already part of a team, each member should apply individually to help us accurately manage attendance.

We do encourage individuals to team up with others and across different organisations, as diverse perspectives often lead to the best solutions. The recommended team size ranges from 4 to 8 members, but we are open to accommodating various team configurations.

If practical, each team should aim to include experienced digital designers or individuals with other similar skills, to rapidly bring concepts to life. These designers will play a key role by leveraging existing assets and thinking from the Ideas Hackathon to help visualise the team's ideas and produce compelling artifacts for presentation. Having relevant skills on your team will help ensure that your innovative ideas are effectively communicated and resonate with the audience.

We expect each team to develop a prototype or a short pitch that communicates the value proposition of their solution and its potential to address the selected challenge. While demonstrating how the solution would work in practice is welcomed, it's not required. We encourage all concepts, in all formats; whether it's words, sketches, wireframes, journey maps, or storyboards. What truly matters is the quality and creativity of the idea and the thought process behind it. Ultimately, we are looking for rapid exploration of ideas, in any medium or fidelity level that best suits your team and the message you want to convey about your proposed solution.

Each team will be provided with a component library for that includes reusable components such as buttons, input fields, grids, headers, footers, banners, tiles, page structures, and more.

Additionally, we will provide access to existing clickable prototypes and wireframes that showcase our current design exploration progress. These resources are intended to serve as a starting point and accelerators for your team, allowing you to quickly adapt or build upon existing concepts. However, please note that the provided artifacts are optional resources. If they prove not to be useful and not to be accelerators, then use whatever helps you get there fastest.

In addition, participants will have the opportunity to integrate their solutions with a test rig, providing a hands-on experience to test and refine their solutions.

We have a number of design assets that can be used as accelerators. These will best be utilised through Figma. As such, it would be highly beneficial for each designer on your team to have access to their own machine with Figma installed and familiarity with the tool. If this is not possible, there are ways to adapt the assets for use in other design tools like Sketch or XD, but this will likely be less efficient.

To ensure you arrive well-prepared and ready to dive into the Ideas Hackathon, we will be distributing briefing materials in advance. It's imperative and expected that all participants familiarise themselves with these resources to hit the ground running on event day.

On the day, our main expectation is for you to focus on collaboration, idea generation, and solving real problems at a rapid pace. Rather than getting bogged down in low-level design details, we encourage you to prioritise forming stronger Ideas and having meaningful conversations within your team. Remember, the goal isn't to produce a fully polished, market-ready product in just two days. It's expected—and okay—for there to be gaps and imperfections in your proposed solutions. Our recommendation is to:

· Use dummy data

· Focus on one core journey in a prototype

· Use the design artefacts where they help you do this, ignore them when they don’t

· Avoid spending excessive time on building fancy interactions or animations (unless this is core to your objective and story)

A single, well-formed idea aligned across your team and presented in a simple manner is far more valuable than multiple poorly structured high-level concepts packaged into a beautiful presentation.

Registration is free of charge, but you must apply in advance. To sign up, please reserve a ticket and complete the registration form in full. The registration deadline is end of day Thursday, 25th April. Please apply by this date to secure your spot.

The Ideas Hackathon is designed as an in-person event. All participants are expected to attend the 2-day event at the AI Playground, Google Offices in London. Collaboration and networking are key components of the hackathon experience, so we encourage in-person attendance to fully engage and benefit from it.

Don't worry if you're not a tech whiz! While coding and technical skills are certainly valuable, they are not mandatory to participate. The Ideas Hackathon focuses on ideation, creative problem-solving, and developing user-centric design solutions. We welcome both technical and non-technical participants from all backgrounds to contribute their unique perspectives and expertise.

Absolutely! To ensure you're well-equipped for the Ideas Hackathon, we will provide comprehensive briefing materials and host pre-event webinar on the INTEROPen YouTube channel. These preparatory materials will be distributed to participants in advance. Additionally, we will hold Drop-in Sessions, allowing you to ask any lingering questions leading up to the event. Stay tuned to the Futures site for dates and times. We strongly advise all participants to take the time to familiarise themselves with the content provided. This will not only enhance your hackathon experience but also maximise your contribution to your team's success.

A simple and fun prize will be awarded to the best pitch, determined by open votes from all hackathon participants and attendees. This award will go to the team whose solution garners the most support.

Yes, we've got you covered! Light snacks and lunch will be provided throughout the 2-day event to keep your energy and creativity flowing. When applyinh, please indicate any dietary preferences or restrictions to accommodate your needs.

Yes, NHS staff are encouraged to join the NHS Staff App Ideas Hackathon. You can contribute your unique insights and first-hand NHS experience in two ways:

1. As a Team Participant: Collaborate within a team, leveraging your expertise to steer ideation towards critical NHS needs. To join as a participant, please apply here.

2. As a Mentor: Share your specialised knowledge as a subject matter expert in areas such as onboarding, training, rostering, core HR, identity, and access. Roam across teams during ideation and prototyping phases, addressing queries and ensuring solutions align with NHS staff requirements. If you're interested in mentoring, please reach out to us at [email protected].

Your participation, whether as a team member or mentor, is vital in driving the creation of user-centered solutions that will significantly enhance the NHS staff experience.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

123 Buckingham Palace Rd, 123 Buckingham Palace Road, London, United Kingdom