NHS Kent and Medway Neighbourhood Health Hackathon

Neighbourhood health is one of the NHS's biggest opportunities, and one of its biggest challenges.

Every Integrated Care System is being asked to redesign services around local communities, creating joined-up pathways that bring together primary care, community services, local authorities, the voluntary sector and patients themselves.

But designing those pathways can feel overwhelming. Where do you start?

For NHS Kent & Medway, the answer was simple: Bring the people who deliver care together and let them build the future themselves.

Earlier this year, Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, NHS Kent & Medway, Cogniss and Aire Innovate hosted the 2026 ICS Hackathon, bringing together frontline clinicians, operational leaders and digital teams to transform real service challenges into working digital solutions in just one day. Eight multidisciplinary teams developed prototypes addressing challenges they encounter every day, from supporting stroke patients after discharge to streamlining theatre bookings and improving inpatient engagement.

Innovation doesn't begin with technology

One of the biggest lessons from the day was that innovation starts with people, not software.

Rather than beginning with a procurement exercise, teams began by asking:

• What problem are we trying to solve?
• What should the citizen experience look like?
• How could professionals work together more effectively?
• What information needs to flow between organisations?

Only then did they start building.

Within hours, ideas had become working digital prototypes.

The winning solution, Daily Spark, developed by Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust, focused on helping maintain activity and engagement on inpatient wards. The team was awarded 12 months of development support with Cogniss to turn the prototype into a real-world application.

Why neighbourhood teams need two capabilities, not one

One theme became increasingly clear throughout the Hackathon. Great neighbourhood care isn't created simply by building an app. Nor is it created simply by digitising a workflow. It requires both.

Citizens need an experience they'll actually use. Neighbourhood care depends on citizens actively engaging with services. That means providing accessible digital front doors, self-management tools, education, assessments, behaviour change support and personalised care plans. These are the capabilities provided through Cogniss.

Professionals need connected pathways. Once a citizen has engaged, the work is only just beginning. Assessments need reviewing. Referrals need routing. Tasks need automating. Multiple organisations need to collaborate. Existing systems need connecting. Outcomes need measuring. These are the capabilities delivered by Aire Innovate.

Together, the two platforms enable neighbourhood teams to design complete pathways, from the first citizen interaction through to coordinated multidisciplinary care.

Turning ideas into deployable services

One of the most exciting aspects of the Hackathon wasn't simply that teams produced innovative ideas. It was that they produced solutions capable of becoming real services.

Using no-code and low-code technology, frontline teams rapidly created working prototypes instead of lengthy business cases or static process maps. This approach demonstrates how clinical expertise, digital tools and collaborative design can dramatically accelerate service redesign.

For neighbourhood programmes tackling priorities such as:

• Frailty
• Falls prevention
• Long-term conditions
• Virtual wards
• Prevention
• Mental health
• Community rehabilitation

this ability to rapidly co-design and iterate pathways has the potential to significantly shorten the journey from concept to implementation.

Could your neighbourhood team design a pathway in a day?

The Hackathon demonstrated that the people best placed to redesign services are often the people delivering them every day.

When clinicians, operational teams, digital specialists and communities work together with the right tools, innovative ideas can quickly become practical solutions that improve care.

That's the thinking behind Digitise Your Pathway in a Day, a collaborative workshop from Cogniss and Aire Innovate that helps neighbourhood teams co-design citizen experiences, build connected digital pathways and develop working prototypes around local priorities, from frailty to prevention and beyond.

If you're developing neighbourhood services and wondering how to move from ambition to implementation, this approach offers a practical place to start.

Read how Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex brought frontline teams together to create real-world digital solutions in a single day. Read the story