Credit: Descrier/CC BY 2.0

The Department of Health and Social Care wishes to explore how digital tools better support “people living with obesity in accessing weight-management services”.

The DHSC has set aside up £150,000 to retain a supplier to conduct a two-month discovery exercise, the goal of which will be to “identify problems in accessing weight-management services through user focused research”.

The chosen firm will be expected to “outline potential user-centred” digital services that could be progressed into an alpha development phase.

“We expect the supplier to gather insights into user experiences that will inform future funding decisions for digital transformation of the weight-management services at a national level and could be used by partner organisations including NHS England and Improvement and Public Health England,” the department said.

Related content

• Leicestershire to invest in weight-management app
• London NHS trusts launch major framework for health and social care apps
• NHS app adopted by just 0.4% of eligible population in first year

“The principal aim of the project is to deepen our understanding of the experiences of people living with obesity and overweight in accessing weight management services throughout the pathway,” it added. “The secondary aim of the project is to identify opportunities to improve the experience of accessing weight management services which will increase uptake. The final aim of the project is to produce low-fidelity ideas and opportunities which could solve the problems identified through the discovery research, and define potential user-centred candidates which could be explored in an alpha phase.”

The chosen supplier will work primarily remotely with occasional meetings to take place at DHSC offices in Leeds or London. The firm may also need to run in-person user workshops.

Ideas or tools to come out of the exercise will be owned by DHSC, which will likely publish them under an open licence.

Bids for the work are open until midnight on 30 August, with work scheduled to start on 11 October.