Transformation Directorate

FutureNHS collaboration platform

Owner

FutureNHS is owned and managed by NHS England. Its code is dual licensed under the MIT Licence and the Open Government Licence v3, which allow for free use of the software for modification, distribution, private use and commercial use with acknowledgement of the source work.

Background 

Staff in different NHS organisations frequently need to collaborate with others, whether within the NHS or across a wide range of external partners. FutureNHS was established in 2017 to enable that collaboration across organisations, professions and places: initially supporting development of new care models with the 50 NHS Vanguard sites before expanding to cover broader programmes and priorities. The platform is now home to hundreds of different communities, using the service to collaborate through thousands of virtual workspaces. As of October 2021 it had 200,000 members and 2,500 workspaces. Use of FutureNHS expanded rapidly during the pandemic and it continues to support a wide range of groups through recovery.

Situation

FutureNHS has become a safe and secure place for people working across health and social care to save, access and share resources and content. The platform supports teams to build learning systems, reduce duplication, and share resources to accelerate innovation and improvement. It now serves:

  • National NHS England teams and programmes
  • All seven regional NHS teams in England 
  • Primary care partnerships
  • Most Integrated Care Systems 
  • Professional Communities
  • Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) 
  • NHS and Local Government partnerships 
  • Stroke Association UK
  • Cancer Alliances

And is open to anyone working in or for health and social care. The platform supports commissioners, providers, senior management, front line staff, clinicians, health and social care colleagues, voluntary and community sector organisations, and the commercial sector.

The platform meets the fundamental need to share and work on projects in one place, helping to break down organisational barriers and drive transformation to enable true collaborative working.

Dorset Integrated Care System

FutureNHS is currently hosted and supported by a commercial cloud-based collaboration tool, but its uptake and growth has created a need to overhaul the platform’s underlying technology.

Aspiration

  • Support ongoing collaboration across organisations and geographies – joining up communities of practice and interest no matter their location, job role or organisation.
  • Maintain a safe platform that empowers everyone working in health and social care to connect, share and learn across boundaries
  • Move away from the current “software as a service” model, escape restrictions on growth caused by member licensing, and strengthen the ownership of FutureNHS: by the NHS, for the NHS.
  • Improve platform navigation and align our services to the NHS Digital Service Manual. 
  • Enable greater flexibility in the platform so it can adapt to local requirements.
  • Contribute to open standards, common components and patterns for platform development

An NHS project manager says,

I think there's something [...] about NHS staff having an environment where they feel secure to be open, that they're learning, they don't have the full information or they're trying to be better… feeling confident asking questions to colleagues working in the same roles across the country.

Solution and impact

FutureNHS is being redeveloped to become NHS owned and open source. The platform will be rebuilt with a common language and available online for free. With full control of the product roadmap for continuous and iterative improvement, the NHS will have the ability to respond to member needs and member problems. FutureNHS benefits from a large community that can support development and integration with other commonly used applications. – allowing for a more joined-up experience across the wider system.  Most importantly, replacing a user licensing model with an open model ensures a free service for users whilst delivering a more cost-effective solution.

A beta version of the new platform launched in early summer 2022, working closely with internal and external teams for member research, development and build.

Functionality

  • FutureNHS is a cloud collaboration platform with a collection of secure online workspaces/groups that can be topic, project, team, care model or policy specific.
  • Workspaces/groups can be set up to deliver work within or in collaboration with the NHS. Members of the platform can join or create workspaces and communities to connect with others, learn and share.   
  • The platform allows members to connect via discussion forums and store, share, search for and co-create documents and other content online in real-time: accessed anywhere, and at any time. Members can request to be a member of as many different workspaces/groups as they want. 
  • The FutureNHS team support and encourage the members and workspaces with training, a helpdesk, good practice, tailored advice on building strong communities and analytics.

Capabilities

  • Self-contained workspace and group areas with their own managed membership and browsable resources
  • Familiar and easy to use forum, based on the BBC’s comments section
  • All workspaces are managed by one or more workspace managers, who look after the workspace content, membership and general administration.
  • Subscription for group and workspace updates
  • Knowledge sharing through the FutureNHS case study tool
  • Consistent page building through a modular function and block approach.

Scope

FutureNHS can be used by anyone working in health and social care at any time whether in the office or home working. Staff can become a member if you invited to join a workspace by a workspace manager, or self-registered.

Key learning points

  • User research is critical
  • Recruit champions
  • The value of the beta tester community is clear
  • Transparent, open and accountable platforms are key: no anonymous posts, and workspace managers have access to an audit log to track activity.

Give us feedback

Open Source Digital Playbook feedback survey

Disclaimer

These case studies summarise user and patient experiences with digital solutions along the relevant care pathway. Unless expressly stated otherwise, the apps and digital tools referenced are not supplied, distributed or endorsed by NHS England or the Department of Health and Social Care and such parties are not liable for any injury, loss or damage arising from their use.

All playbook case studies have either passed, or are currently undergoing the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) assessment.

Please note the full legal disclaimer: NHS England playbook disclaimer

Page last updated: September 2022