About this change

The information standard provides reference data about the Organisations and Sites that comprise the health and social care services, including non-direct-care Organisations, primarily in England but also in the other UK-constituent countries. The data is distributed and uploaded to health IT systems. It supports user security, access control, messaging and is used as reference data for both operations and reporting.

All health and care bodies must consider the impact of updates to the Organisation Reference Data information standard and make timely, appropriate changes to systems and processes.

The Introduction of Integrated Care Boards

The latest release formally introduced Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) into this information standard, following the publication of the Health and Care Act 2022.

Integrated Care Boards replaced the functions of Clinical Commissioning Groups in July 2022. However, although ICB boundaries are established and known there is not enough clarity around other requirements and so the update to this standard is taking place in 2 phases; version 1.2 of this standard covers the transition phase only:

• Retain and rename current, active STP codes and associate new Non-Primary Role to reflect Integrated Care Boards
• Retain and rename current, active CCG codes and associate new Non-Primary Role to reflect the Sub ICB Location / Geographical area.

Phase 2 will be introduced at a later stage – the exact date and form of these changes is yet to be confirmed because it is dependent on the requirements of the system, however, it is likely to include closure of the CCG/Sub ICB Location codes and introduction of further new codes to identify ICB Place.

ODS Product Modernisations

The withdrawal of the .csv format Organisation Reference Data files, introduced in SCCI0090 Amd 24/2015, was postponed, following feedback from data consumers regarding the impact of migrating to XML data files or API feeds.

In recognition of the broad range of consumers of ODS data, the service has invested in the development of new tools that bring the benefit of a single data source (improving reliability and consistency of data), but also provide the consumer with a range of data formats and download frequencies to suit their individual needs.

ODS Data Search and Export is in public beta until the end of August 2024. This tool will replace the ODS Portal, ODS DataPoint and .csv files published on the ODS website and via TRUD (Terminology Reference Data Update). The tool allows users to view and download data in excel or .csv format and contains a range of predefined reports that replicate legacy .csv content.

ODS Data Search and Export is fed by a new Organisation Data Terminology FHIR R4 API. This API is also in public beta until the end of August 2024.

Publishing ODS data via a FHIR compliant API is a modernisation of the service, allows for future uplift in line with the FHIR standard and supports interoperability across the health and social care system.

The Organisation Data Terminology FHIR API will replace the STU3 ODS API, and following engagement with users, will potentially replace the current ORD API. It should be noted that the ORD API, although an existing product, is now fed by the same data source as the FHIR R4 API, maintaining the ‘single source of truth’ for ODS data.

The ODS website will be continually updated as these new tools progress to live and legacy tools are deprecated. Updates to the 0090 standard are also planned in line with this service modernisation.