1. Saturday 16 th & Sunday 17 th November 2013

2. What is a Hackathon? A way of exploring technical solutions to social issues or ‘problems’ Bringing people together for a concentrated period of time to set out problems and develop solutions (apps, websites etc) An innovative way of tackling issues and problems in social care, housing and health services A partnership approach to problem solving

4. What we did Formed a partnership with DeMontfort University Invited ‘problems’ from a range of colleagues working in social care, health and housing Shortlisted 3 ‘problems’ that had potential to be developed in the time available Got ‘problem’ proposers together with data programmers/coders for a weekend Watched the solutions develop…

7. The ‘problems’ The autism passport; an app to enable those with the condition to access advice and information and better self manage their health The lone worker app; enabling workers to stay safe when visiting clients by raising alerts and plotting their location The community transport app; capturing spare capacity, plotting routes and enabling organisations to maximise the use of transport resources

10. Developing solutions A technical solution was scoped out for all the ‘problems’ We were able to view elements of the apps by the end of the weekend Programmers are keen to complete the work outside of the Hackathon Any completed apps will be available for anyone to use

14. How did it go? All involved agreed it was a successful weekend An enthusiastic response from programmers/ coders Lessons learnt in respect of the ‘problems’ that lend themselves to a Hackathon approach Confirmed the potential for this approach An annual event?