NHS England 's HPV Self Testing report
DHSC's NHS England 's HPV Self Testing alpha assessment report
Service Standard Assessment report
HPV Self Testing
| Assessment date | 02/10/2025 |
| Assessment stage | Alpha |
| Assessment type | Assessment |
| Service provider | NHS England |
| Result | Green |
Previous assessment reports
n/a
Service description
Around 4 million people with a cervix are currently not responding to routine cervical screening invitations, due to barriers such as embarrassment, past trauma, lack of time, limited access, and misinformation. This unmet need represents a significant public health gap, with potentially preventable consequences. Given that HPV causes 99% of cervical cancers, expanding access to screening is critical to our goal of eliminating cervical cancer by 2040.
Our vision is to deliver a safe, equitable, and accessible HPV screening service by empowering individuals to self-test at home. By meeting people where they are, self-testing has the potential to drive earlier detection, boost participation among underserved groups, and ultimately improve health outcomes.
Service users
A digitally supported self-testing journey embedded inside the NHS App where users will be able to:
- receive invitations (App first, fall back to SMS, Email and Letter)
- request a kit
- get reminders (App first, fall back to SMS and Email)
- receive their results and where necessary next steps
Overview of service users
- non-responders, who are between the ages of 30-65, with a cervix who are overdue for screening
- the cohorts will be broken down (for prioritising order of invitations) by segmentation, for example age and those at highest risk first
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:
- the team should plan to research the end-to-end user journey as part of their private Beta, with a focus on representing user types that are most likely to experience service barriers, and those less represented as part of Alpha
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:
- the team should continue to carefully update their knowledge management artefacts and communicate this learning with other teams. With this being a first-of-type self-testing journey, there is a likelihood that future delivery teams will benefit from clear documentation
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service was rated green point 3 of the Standard.
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:
- early in private beta the team should run end-to-end testing on the live system with any of the diverse user groups which were only represented by a small number of participants during alpha. This will have the benefit of building knowledge on the diversity of users whilst testing the live journey early enough to implement any significant changes to content or technology that may arise
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:
- the team should continue to iterate tailored scripts/messaging for the phone support line at various points throughout the journey. The private beta phase will present a good opportunity to build on this work with user testing on the live system
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:
- review whether there is a better way to embed/integrate the PO role into the team, so colleagues aren’t waiting for decisions at the PO questions ceremony
- the team committed to improving team support after unexpected difficult research conversations. Ethics and safeguarding training are available to non-user researchers at NHS England which may support this. Contact england.ethics@nhs.net for details
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service was rated green for point 7 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- carry out a lesson learned exercise on the length of the discovery and alpha phases – the GDS recommendation is 16 weeks total for both
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:
- continue to plan for handover to the support team, and maintaining institutional knowledge by using permanent civil servant resource wherever possible
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:
- the team should always ensure data is secured in use, transit and storage
- the connectivity for data sharing with third party services e.g. Laboratories should ensure PII conforms to GDPR data minimisation
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:
- get peer review from a performance analyst to see whether they have any recommendations
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service was rated green for point 11 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- the team should consider carefully the integration requirements for link capabilities. Although some of these are known quantities because they are in use with other health services e.g. NHS App, there are still areas that require further investigation e.g. NHS Notify
- key integrations between CEM, CSMS and Kit Providers & Laboratories should be investigated as part of the Beta work
- integrations with legacy systems should also be reviewed carefully e.g. PDS and CEM
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:
- the team must provide evidence of all codes/scripts developed as part of the solution in the beta phase. This should be a link to the code repository
- the link should evidence active implementation of working in the open to include code branches, updates and merges
13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
Decision
The service was rated green for point 13 of the Standard.
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:
- the details of the Service Level Agreements must be provided
- key NFR metrics such as RTO and RPO must be provided
- clear metrics to determine the success of the service and how these will be obtained, analysed and checked against the agreed baselines
Next Steps
Green - alpha assessment]
This service can now move into a private beta phase, subject to getting approval from the GDS spend control team. The service must meet the standard at beta assessment before launching public beta.