From Compliance Headache to Digital Solution: How Shape Built an MVP to Solve Healthcare Staff Verification

Every healthcare organisation in the UK must comply with CQC regulations around staff identification and verification. For one care provider, this meant a painfully familiar cycle: printing physical ID cards, reprinting them when staff changed roles, updating DBS checks, and fielding calls from the public trying to confirm whether the person at their door was legitimate.

It was slow. It was expensive. And it didn't scale.

They came to Shape with a clear problem and a tight budget. They didn't need a years-long enterprise programme, they needed a minimum viable product (MVP) that solved the core pain point fast, proved its value, and could grow from there.

The Challenge

Healthcare staff turnover, role changes, and mandatory DBS renewals meant physical ID cards were constantly out of date. Reprinting was a recurring cost, and the turnaround time left staff carrying invalid credentials. Worse, members of the public had no reliable way to verify that a care worker arriving at their home was who they claimed to be.

Existing off-the-shelf identity management platforms were either too broad, too expensive, or too rigid for the specific compliance requirements of a CQC-regulated care provider. The organisation needed something purpose-built — but couldn't justify a six-figure software project without first proving the concept.

This is exactly where MVP development delivers the most value: identifying the smallest version of a product that solves a real problem, building it quickly, and iterating based on real-world feedback.

Shape's Solution: A Focused MVP Built for Impact

Shape worked closely with the client to scope a lean MVP that addressed the three core user journeys: staff viewing their digital ID, administrators managing staff records, and the public verifying a staff member's identity.

Digital Staff ID

Rather than printing and reprinting plastic cards, staff now carry a digital ID on their phone — or a simple physical card printed with a standard QR code. The digital ID displays their name, photo, role, and active status alongside a live verification badge that refreshes every ten seconds, preventing screenshot misuse.

Admin Dashboard

A lightweight admin panel gives managers the ability to add staff, upload photos, set active/inactive status, and update DBS verification, with changes reflected instantly in both the staff app and the public verification page. No waiting for new cards to be printed and posted.

Public Verification

When a member of the public scans the QR code, whether from a phone screen or a physical card, they're taken to a verification page where they enter the staff member's unique 8-character ID. The page confirms the person's name, photo, role, DBS status, and whether they are currently active, all without exposing any sensitive personal data.

Security was built in from day one. The staff IDs use human-friendly but non-sequential alphanumeric codes, making enumeration attacks impractical, and the live verification badge ensures that a static screenshot cannot be used to impersonate a legitimate employee.

Why MVP Development Was the Right Approach

Building an MVP isn't about cutting corners, it's about making smart decisions on scope to deliver value as early as possible. For this project, that meant:

• Validating the concept before scaling. The client could deploy the system with a small group of staff, gather feedback, and confirm it solved the problem before investing further.
• Keeping costs proportional to risk. Instead of committing to a large bespoke platform upfront, the MVP approach let the client spend conservatively while still getting a production-ready tool.
• Designing for iteration. The architecture, Flutter front-end, FastAPI backend, Supabase/Postgres database, hosted on Railway, was chosen for rapid development without sacrificing scalability. Every component can be extended as the product grows.
• Shipping fast. By focusing on core user journeys and deferring nice-to-haves like analytics dashboards and multi-organisation support, Shape delivered a working product on a compressed timeline.

The Shape Advantage

What makes Shape's approach to MVP development different is that we don't just build and hand over. We work as an embedded team, understanding the regulatory landscape, the operational realities, and the end users, from administrators managing hundreds of staff to elderly residents answering their front door.

This deep domain knowledge means we build the right thing the first time, minimise rework, and ensure the MVP is genuinely useful from day one rather than a throwaway prototype.

The Result: Compliance Made Simple

MyCompanyID replaced a slow, manual, paper-based process with a digital-first verification system that meets CQC regulatory requirements. Key outcomes include:

• Elimination of repetitive card printing: role changes, DBS updates, and new starters are reflected instantly in the digital system.
• Public trust and safety: anyone can verify a care worker's identity in seconds using a standard smartphone, with no app download required.
• Real-time accuracy: staff records are always current, removing the lag between an administrative change and the credential a staff member carries.
• A platform ready to grow: with a clean architecture and a clear roadmap including analytics, multi-organisation support, and customisable card branding.

Why Shape?

For regulated industries like healthcare, compliance isn't optional and budgets aren't unlimited. MVP development lets organisations solve pressing operational problems quickly, prove value with real users, and scale with confidence.

Shape provides the technical expertise to scope, build, and ship an MVP that works — and the embedded partnership to evolve it into a full product as the business case grows. If you're facing a compliance challenge, an operational bottleneck, or simply need to validate an idea before committing to a full build, we'd love to talk.