NHS England Secure Data Environment set-up guide

This guide will help you set up your NHS England SDE account after you receive your account activation email. It provides guidance on:

• getting help
• setting up your account
• setting up and signing in with your two-factor authentication
• signing into the SDE portal
• starting your virtual desktop

Getting help 

For issues or queries about accessing the SDE, contact the National Service Desk at [email protected] or by phoning 0300 303 5035.

Drop-in sessions

SDE users are invited to attend drop-in sessions with our data specialists for support with using the SDE environment and its tools, including data sets and programming.

Drop-in sessions occur every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10am to 11am GMT (excluding public holidays) via Microsoft Teams. Invites are sent with your SDE account activation email. Alternatively, contact [email protected] for more information.

Follow this guidance to set up and sign in to your SDE Portal account.

A user manager will need to create an account for you so you can access the SDE Portal. You will receive an email with instructions on how to set up your account.

1. Select ‘Set up your account’ or ‘Sign in to the SDE Portal’ (for NHS DigiTrials Feasibility Self Service users) from the email.

2. Re-enter to confirm your email address and select ‘Continue’.

3. Choose and enter a password for your account. Make sure it meets the password criteria and select ‘Continue’.

4. From the SDE Portal homepage select ‘Sign in’.

5. Enter your email address and password you set earlier and select ‘Sign in’.

If it is your first time signing in, you must set up two-factor authentication.

You will need an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator, which you can download from the app store.

1. Open your authenticator app and scan the QR code with your mobile device.

2. Enter the 6 digit code from your authenticator app and select ‘Continue’. A new code is generated every 60 seconds. If the time is close to expiring, wait until a new code appears.
3. Read the SDE End User Access Agreement (EUAA) and select ‘Accept and continue’ to agree to the terms and conditions.

You may need to complete the induction assessment if it's your first time using the SDE. The assessment does not apply to NHS DigiTrials Feasibility Self Service users.

Select ‘Continue’ and complete the assessment. Once you have passed and completed the assessment, select ‘Go to SDE portal’.

After completing the assessment, you may need to select your agreement. Most users will not need to do this as they have only one agreement.

Once you are signed in to the SDE Portal, you can:

• launch the virtual desktop
• upload reference data
• get help and guidance
• manage users (only visible for ‘user manager’ roles)

To access the virtual desktop, select ‘Launch the virtual desktop’. This might take a few minutes while your virtual desktop is prepared.

Once your virtual desktop is ready, you will be able to access the tools within it from your browser.

NHS DigiTrials Feasibility Self Service users will see a different screen and should select the ‘Feasibility Self Service’ icon.

For further details on completing the sign in to your required tool within the environment, read the SDE user guidance.

NHS DigiTrials users should read the guidance on accessing and using the Feasibility Self-Service Tool (FSS).

Support for common problems during NHS England SDE set-up.

To reset your two-factor authentication

Contact the National Service Desk by email at [email protected].

Using a new device with two-factor authentication

If you need to use a new or alternative device for your two-factor authentication, contact the National Service Desk by email at [email protected] to request a reset. You will then be able to set up two-factor authentication on your new device.

Firewall settings

The network port 443 (TCP outbound) will be required to be open on both your local PC firewall (if enabled) and on your network firewall.

This port is used to establish the secure connection via a web browser.

Whitelisted URLs

If your organisation has firewalls set up, you may be requested to click through warnings in your browser.

Your unique URL (provided in your account activation email) must be allowed (whitelisted) through your organisation’s firewall. Sites using proxy servers may need to add a proxy exception for the service for the connection to be successful. This is especially the case where traffic based on port numbers is separated across different proxy servers.