NHSE Home Test Alpha Assessment

From: DHSC
Assessment date: 30/04/2026
Stage: Alpha assessment
Result: Green
Service provider: NHSE

Service description 

This service aims to solve the problem of enabling people to order clinically approved home testing kits through a national digital platform, integrated with the NHS App. The service supports discreet, accessible testing outside of traditional clinical settings, starting with HIV self‑testing and designed to scale to additional test types in future. Users can order a test, receive clear guidance on how to complete it, return samples where required, and receive results with appropriate follow‑up information and signposting to care. The service is designed to improve access, equity and public health outcomes while supporting local authorities and suppliers through a consistent national platform. 

Service users 

Initial HIV use case 

• Members of the public ordering and using home test kits 
• Clinical and operational teams supporting testing and follow‑up 
• Third‑party test kit and laboratory suppliers 

Scalable multi-test platform 

• GPs initiating an at home test for patients 
•  Secondary care clinicians initiating home testing 
• Community users wanting to provide an individual with an at home test, for example, pharmacists 

Report contents

1. Understand users and their needs
2. Solve a whole problem for users
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
4. Make the service simple to use
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
7. Use agile ways of working
8. Iterate and improve frequently
9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
11. Choose the right tools and technology
12. Make new source code open
13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
14. Operate a reliable service

1. Understand users and their needs 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 1 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service: 

• Prepare how to balance a frictionless design as the platform scales to other test types that will demand more upfront clinical data 
• Ensure adequate resource is provided for research and monitoring during your early phase of private beta; maximise on the small user sample size to closely observe journeys, prepare to make quick pivots if necessary and prioritise clinical safety above all else 

The panel was impressed that the team actively sought out inexperienced testers and marginalised users through community pop-up research sessions rather than relying solely on standard recruitment. We liked that the team used this research to create visual step-by-step guides that support people with reading difficulties and those for whom English is a second language.

2. Solve a whole problem for users 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 2 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service 

• Prioritise design and iteration of user-facing communications throughout service paths and firm up any outstanding operational service level agreements with suppliers 
• Validate your proposed hard-coded fail safes to ensure users safely receive reactive results from a clinician in the event of any technical data error 

The panel was impressed that the team took a mature, systemic view to solve a whole problem by clearly mapping the boundaries between the NHS App, third-party test suppliers, and local clinical pathways. We liked that the team applied rigorous data minimisation by stripping identifiable information from the results API payload to reduce data leakage risks across systems. 

3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 3 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service 

• Design concrete plans for assisted digital channels, such as telephone ordering (you mentioned an uncertainty that the majority of users wanted this path, but please remember to leave nobody excluded by available channel constraints) and offline kit holding points for community outreach 
• Create standard operating procedures and triage routing to ensure seamless handovers between NHS England and supplier support boundaries 
• Ensure private provider support agents do not inadvertently record unnecessary clinical data during logistics support calls  

The panel was impressed that the team simulated parallel offline touchpoints, such as physical testing kits and promotional posters, alongside the digital prototypes during research sessions. We liked that the team established a clear operational split for user support, where NHS England handles pre-order queries and test suppliers handle post-order queries. 

4. Make the service simple to use 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 4 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service 

• Continue to make use of your user-centred iterations in designing front-end communication journeys for technical delays to replace generic error messages 
• Firm up the collaboration with other teams such as the HPV self testing solution regarding shared resourcing and processes for assisted digital opportunities like telephony support.

The panel was impressed that the team streamlined the ordering flow to reduce cognitive load. The panel liked that the team removed confusing intermediate pages and reframed address collection around eligibility to make the process quick and straightforward. The panel was impressed that the team made a strategic decision in making best use of their resources to follow the “fail fast and fix it” principle during alpha. 

5. Make sure everyone can use the service    

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 5 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service 

• Iterate content messaging for users who trigger automated fraud or address blocks, with a fallback to telephony support or signposting to alternative physical clinics 
• Test the end-to-end journey with users of assistive technologies to validate the accessibility improvements made to the production code 

The panel was impressed that the team embedded an accessibility auditor in the team and reviewed production code at an accessibility lab to identify structural improvements. We liked that the team used plain language and avoided medical jargon to ensure the service is inclusive for people with low health literacy. 

6. Have a multidisciplinary team 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 6 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service: 

• Continue to develop plans for scaling the team and delivery model into private beta   
• Continue to iterate ownership and accountability across the end-to-end service, including supplier roles   
• Ensure ways of working remain effective as the number of suppliers and delivery partners increases   
• Continue to strengthen alignment with connected services and programmes as the service develops further 

7. Use agile ways of working 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 7 of the Standard. 

8. Iterate and improve frequently 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 8 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service: 

• Ensure the design change backlog maps directly to the clinical safety and information governance requirements for the beta phase 

The panel was impressed that the team uses highly iterative, user-centred design cycles to quickly evolve the service. The panel liked that the team not only tested their designs, but actively retested new iterations with the exact same user groups to confidently validate that their changes worked. A great example of this was when they identified that users with reading difficulties were overwhelmed by the start page, and then successfully proved their redesigned, simplified page resolved the issue. 

9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 9 of the Standard. 

 Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service: 

• Continue looking at using NHS login for authentication for accessing the service for routes not using the NHS App 
• Provide more detail about how the service will integrate with CSOC (NHS Cyber Security Operations Centre) 

10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 10 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service: 

• Continue to develop the performance framework to measure access and coverage across different geographies, including where the service is not available 
• Confirm how the service will measure impact against wider aims, including productivity, access and earlier detection   
• Continue to strengthen how data is brought together across NHS and supplier systems to support end-to-end measurement   
• Continue to develop measures for supplier onboarding, integration and participation to support scaling of the platform across multiple pathways   
• Continue to work with local authorities, trusts and suppliers to understand system-level impact and variation in access across different areas 

11. Choose the right tools and technology 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 11 of the Standard. 

12. Make new source code open 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 12 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service: 

• Provide detailed reasons why the home test-service source code will be made private 
• Continue to make the source code open for the home test-supplier-integration-framework and update the documentation as appropriate 

13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 13 of the Standard. 

Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service: 

• Seek to contribute any newly developed patterns, such as the highly effective visual step-by-step blood sampling guide, back to the NHS design system 
• Ensure any offline materials, like the physical testing kits and promotional community posters, adhere to the same inclusive design patterns as the digital journey 

The panel liked that the team built the service using established, accessible patterns from the NHS App and GOV.UK design systems to reduce cognitive load and provide a familiar experience. The panel was impressed that the team rigorously tracked pattern reuse in their page evolution history, successfully borrowing proven elements from parallel services like Digital Health Checks and the Hepatitis C home testing journey. 

14. Operate a reliable service 

Decision 

The service was rated green for point 14 of the Standard. 

 Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service: 

• Create standardised operating procedures and communication scripts for service management to safely contact users if a lab result cannot be automatically matched to their NHS profile 

The panel was impressed that the technical architecture uses intelligent decoupling (such as Amazon SQS queues) to prevent orders from being lost if a third-party supplier goes offline. We liked that the team has proactively mapped out unhappy paths - such as unreturned kits, insufficient blood samples, and API drops - and acknowledged the need to tackle these carefully.

Next Steps 

Green - alpha

This service can now move into a private beta phase, subject to getting approval from the CDDO spend control team. The service must meet the standard at beta assessment before launching public beta.