NHS Digital Staff Passport alpha reassessment
The report for the NHS Digital Staff Passport alpha reassessment on 13 October 2022
Service Standard reassessment report
NHS Digital Staff Passport
| From: | DHSC |
| Assessment date: | 13/10/22 |
| Stage: | Alpha reassessment |
| Result: | Met |
| Service provider: | NHS England |
Previous assessment reports
Service description
Digital Staff Passports will enable postgraduate doctors in training, and staff who move temporarily, to hold a verified portfolio of digital credentials for employment checks and core skills training competencies. This will ensure they can move between different NHS organisations more easily and quickly, without the need for repeat form filling, checks and duplicate training.
Service users
- NHS staff - postgraduate doctors in training are the initial focus for the minimum viable product (MVP). The long term aim is to roll out to all staff
- NHS employers including corporate staff (HR and recruitment teams, occupational health and education), and medical staff (training and education teams)
- NHS England IT staff will be required to administer the service.
1. Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service met point 1 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has broadened the range of end users with which it has conducted research and has taken care to include a variety of roles, ages, locations, digital abilities, and so on
- the team has begun to conduct some face-to-face research sessions
- the team has developed the set of user needs to be more user centred and behaviour based. The team has written the user needs using the language and terminology of the users who took part in the user research sessions
- the team has a very solid understanding of the context of their users’ need for this service, for example the shift work and change of locations of work, which means the solution is being tailored to resolve these challenges
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue to research with a broad range of end users
- continue with the plan to research with new starters, users of assistive technology, users who do not have mobile phones and users who have very low digital confidence, and so on
- consider whether remote unmoderated user research would help alleviate difficulties experienced with user availability for research sessions
- review the set of user needs to ensure that there has been careful consideration of the use of ‘I want’ as opposed to ‘I need’ and if possible, validate the high level user needs with end users
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service met point 4 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has succeeded in making the service more intuitive, for example with the addition of a progress checker
- the team has reduced the cognitive load on users by integrating guidance into the service and reducing the number of clicks required to complete various journeys
- the team is working with other organisations and ‘ambassadors’ from different parts of the NHS to design the offline elements of the service
- users are mostly able to get through the service unaided, except for the artificial break between app and browser, in the current prototype
- they team has validated the name of the service in a series of workshops with a range of potential users
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- create a prototype service that does not have the current breakpoints and discontinuity between the app and the browser- based elements of the journey
- test further iterations of the service with people completely new to the NHS
- design, test and refine a joined-up ‘ecosystem’ of guidance and support around the online and app-based service
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service met point 5 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has conducted a digital inclusion survey to assess the digital competence of participants in user research
- 23% of people in recent round of user research had accessibility concerns
- insights gained from testing the service with people who have accessibility needs led to improvements that have benefitted all users, such as more detailed information up-front about the process the user is about to go through
- iterations based on feedback from people with access needs were validated by retesting with the same cohort
- the existing service will still be available for those people who cannot use the new service
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue to test new iterations of the service with users who have varying levels of digital competence and a range of accessibility needs
- conduct a thorough accessibility audit of all parts of the service to ensure it conforms to all relevant accessibility standards
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service met point 8 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team used their previous service assessment experience to understand the user needs and iterate and improve the prototype. This ensures they can move forward to private beta
- the team presented evidence of multiple iterations of the service based on user feedback, for example the journey of adding a progression tracker to the service. This included six iteration and feedback loops with users, to provide an enhanced experience
- the service team showed iteration of the prototype following user research with users with assisted digital and accessibility needs
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue to iterate and improve the service based on user needs of a larger target audience when creating and building the private beta service
- consider the overall cost of the service and analyse if creating and building this service will lead to technical and content debt
- ensure that participating in service assessment is included in the service iteration and improvement process. This could include:
- understanding that service assessors may also have accessibility needs
- providing less information in each slide of the presentation deck
- creating ‘just enough’ slides for future service assessments
- spending more time demonstrating the service