CONfidence App (UK)
CONfidence is a free, discreet self-care app for people living with bladder and bowel leakage – clinically reviewed, and available whenever they need it.
If you work in an ICS, a place-based partnership, or a continence service, it gives you one trusted resource to put in people's hands. No cost, no contracts, no personal data collected.
This means people get reliable help at the moment they'd never think to ask for it – and your service becomes the one that reached them.
Available free on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
The problem nobody talks about
In the UK, 14 million people live with bladder control problems, 6.5 million experience bowel control difficulties, and nearly 900,000 children are affected at any one time.
For many, the condition shapes everything – which seats they choose, which events they attend, which conversations they avoid. Almost none of it reaches a consultation, because stigma and the assumption that it's just something to put up with mean most people manage alone.
Incontinence is one of the most common long-term health challenges in the system. And one of the least visible.
Is this you?
CONfidence is built for ICSs, place-based partnerships, continence services, and clinicians working in them. Three problems you'll recognise:
- Most of your population never presents – only a fraction of the millions affected ever reach your service.
- Clinic time goes on explaining basics – specialist appointments spent covering what's normal and what to try first, rather than the care only your team can give.
- People leave with a leaflet and no follow-up – between appointments, or while waiting for one, there's nothing reliable to turn to.
All of it costs something – in unmet need, in specialist time, and in people reaching help later than they should.
What you're giving people
Put the app in people's pockets and you can:
- Help them understand what's happening – clear, non-judgemental explanations of bladder and bowel conditions.
- Equip them to manage symptoms confidently – practical self-care guidance they can act on straight away.
- Give them their life back – less anxiety around travel, activities, and social situations.
- Signpost the right support – NHS services, specialists, and charities.
- Show them when to seek help – and make it easier to ask.
Everything written in plain English, designed to be easy to return to – especially during difficult or embarrassing moments.
CONfidence is not a replacement for clinical care. It sits alongside your existing services – reinforcing your messages, supporting self-management, and reaching people at moments your teams can't.
Built to the standards you'd expect
Co-developed by Professor Nikki Cotterill (UWE Bristol) and Dr Knut Schroeder, with people living with bladder and bowel leakage, continence specialists, and charities including Bladder & Bowel UK, ERIC, and Bristol Urological Institute.
Independently assessed and meeting recognised quality and safety standards, including:
- PIF TICK accredited
- Winner, Nursing Times Award for Continence Care
- ORCHA-certified
"Very helpful and relevant – delivered in a way that isn't at all judgemental."
– App user"This gives people the tools to manage their own symptoms."
– App user
More on how we develop and quality-assure our content.
Make a difference – without straining budgets or teams
Four commissioning priorities it supports:
- Reach people earlier – before symptoms escalate, and between appointments when nothing else is there.
- Offer equitable access – make guidance easily available to anyone with a smartphone, regardless of geography or waiting times.
- Reduce avoidable demand – provide one trusted resource and replace scattered, inconsistent information.
- Use existing capacity better – complement continence pathways without adding operational burden.
CONfidence gives you a low-risk, scalable way to improve access, consistency, and equity of continence support across your population – without commissioning a new digital product.
Make it local
Add a branded home page and a directory of your local continence services, referral routes, and support – connecting nationally recognised guidance to your own pathways.
Ready to talk?
If you'd like to explore how CONfidence could support your population, let's spend 20 minutes on it.