NHS England extends Tinder contract

The Tinder Foundation’s contract with NHS England to train people to use online health services has been extended for another year.

Last September, foundation won a £1m contract to train 50,000 people to use online health services by April 2014.

The contract is part of NHS England’s £2m Health Online Programme which aims to train 100,000 to use online health services. The value of the contract for the second year has been reduced to £800,000 in 2014-15.

A board paper being presented to NHS England’s board meeting this week, says that the second year of the contract means that the Tinder Foundation will have to train 80,000 people in online skills, as well as reaching 120,000 people with information about “how and where to get online for health.”

People engaged in the Health Online Programme have been surveyed to assess the impact of the scheme, and the board paper says that early findings suggest the scheme has been successful.

“76% of people trained now feel more confident managing their health using online tools; 18% of people trained now feel more self-reliant and have reduced their use of the NHS,” says the board paper.

As part of the programme developed 15 flagship projects nationwide, aimed at engaging with ‘hard to reach’ groups and building partnerships between digital inclusion experts and health professionals.

This includes the Mayfair Community Centre in Shropshire, which provides digital skills training to older people in rural areas, as well as digital inclusion work with homeless people in Leeds and the Asian community in Leicester.