Organisation Data Interface Changes
Briefing Pack: End-Users’ Impact Assessment
Author: Mike Presence (Senior Business Analyst,
Organisation Data Service)
January 2015
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Copyright © 2014, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Organisation Data Interface Changes – Briefing Pack: End Users’ Impact Assessment v 0.1
Contents
Background
3
Purpose of Document
3
Change Summary
4
Current Approach
4
Future Approach
4
Implementation Milestones
5
Questions to Consider
6
Example Impacts
7
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Copyright © 2014, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Organisation Data Interface Changes – Briefing Pack: End Users’ Impact Assessment v 0.1
Background
Comprehensive reference data about organisations has been maintained by a central
service and provided to the NHS for the last twenty years. The current provider is the
Organisation Data Service (ODS), part of the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Over time, aspects of the data have become outdated resulting in several issues, including:
the imminent exhaustion of some code ranges; inflexibility around relationships and metadata; and a convoluted release structure.
Following a consultation period that ran between March and May of 2014, ODS laid out a
package of changes to the existing data interface which aim to address these issues. An
information standard formalising these changes is planned for May 2015, with the first
changes scheduled for November of the same year.
Organisation data is almost universally implemented in information systems throughout
Health and Social Care and embedded within pivotal business processes, systems and
services. Transition to the proposed new interface therefore holds significant implications for
the service as a whole.
Purpose of Document
A central consideration of any change to a core information standard is the impact on the
service (and resulting costs incurred). The ubiquitous implementation of organisation data
means it is safe to assume that the planned changes will have impact of some form right
across health and social care. The nature and severity of these impacts, however, is less
easy to gauge.
This paper aims to assist in addressing this gap. It is targeted at end-users of Organisation
data and provides a high-level introduction to the proposed changes, highlighting the key
elements and likely areas of impact to consumers. Although more detail is available on the
ODS web pages1 the information provided in this document should allow stakeholders to
assess impacts and estimate the Rough Order of Magnitude costs involved.
This information will in turn be assessed by the Burden Advice and Assessment Service
(BAAS) of the Health and Social Care Information Centre, in order to validate the level of
burden incurred by organisations in absorbing the changes. This assessment will then form
part of the submission of the changes to the Standardisation Committee for Care Information
(SCCI) for consideration as a proposed information standard.
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http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/data/ods/interfacechanges. Note that this information will remain available and
continue to be expanded throughout transition.
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Copyright © 2014, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Organisation Data Interface Changes – Briefing Pack: End Users’ Impact Assessment v 0.1
Change Summary
Current Approach

An intelligent structure is used for organisation identifiers to denote organisation type
(referred to as a ‘Code-Frame’)2. E.g. NHS Trust codes are 3 characters long and
begin with an ‘R’

Code Frames also convey parent organisation-site relationships (i.e. a site identifier
shares the parent organisation’s identifier as a prefix)

Code Frames have historically limited codes for most key organisations to 3
characters in length

Flat-structure Comma Separated Value files are used to release data, alongside file
specifications that must be separately interpreted

Relationship information is limited to one per organisation

Additional meta-data for organisations (subtype) is limited to one per organisation

Publication is structured around Quarterly ‘full’ releases, supplemented with Monthly
and Weekly releases of a subset of files only
Future Approach

A move from structured codes where format indicates type of organisation, to a true
unique identifier, with a standard structure and no in-built intelligence

A move from flat-file CSV format, to XML

Use of XML to its full advantage to offer richer, more flexible information about
organisations including:
o Capacity for multiple Relationships for each Organisation
o New, more comprehensive meta-data to encompass and exceed existing
Organisation Type and Subtype concepts ('Primary Role' and 'Secondary
Role')
o Context for Relationships ('Relationship Name')
o All supporting information required to interpret data included within file releases

Increased release frequency and simplified structure
2
See http://www.datadictionary.nhs.uk/data_dictionary/attributes/o/org/organisation_code_de.asp?shownav=1 for example
Code Frames
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Copyright © 2014, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Organisation Data Interface Changes – Briefing Pack: End Users’ Impact Assessment v 0.1
Implementation Milestones
27-Jun-14
29-May-15
Consultation Conclusion: Draft Technical Regulation
Specification Published
(Information Standard)
27-Nov-15
Introduction of XML
(Begin Dual Running)
1-Apr-18
Transition to New
Identifier Structure
6-Nov-19
Legacy CSV Files Deprecated
Oct-14 Jan-15 Apr-15 Jul-15 Oct-15 Jan-16 Apr-16 Jul-16 Oct-16 Jan-17 Apr-17 Jul-17 Oct-17 Jan-18 Apr-18 Jul-18 Oct-18 Jan-19
26-Nov-14
1st Baseline of Role
Data Published
23-Dec-14
1st Baseline of Relationship
Data Published
26-Nov-14 - 29-May-15
Further Elaboration &
Release of Reference Data
Important notes on implementation:

Scope is limited to Organisation data only. Non-organisation files that identify people
e.g. GPs and Nurses are out of scope until further notice (although change to these
files is not precluded – any required will be separately notified).

Although the new XML products are being introduced relatively soon (November
2015) use is not mandated immediately as they will be dual run with the existing CSV
products for four years.

During the period of dual running, the CSV files cannot properly be considered
‘legacy’. They are still supported and any changes needed to structure will be notified
by information standards, as currently.

Upon transition to the new identifier structure, legacy identifiers will not be recoded;
existing identifiers will simply persist indefinitely until naturally closed, meaning users
will not be required to replace any in-use identifiers. Note however that this does not
affect the implementation of unstructured codes i.e. from the 1 April 2018 it can no
longer be assumed that identifiers will have intelligence and all codes should be
treated accordingly.

ODS reserve the right to delay transition to the new identifier structure for a limited
subset of existing organisation types. It is not yet possible to advise if this course of
action is to be taken or to confirm which types it will include and several caveats
apply:
1. this is an absolute last resort – every effort will be made to transition all
organisation types at the same time
2. if this implementation approach is taken, the business need to delay transition
must be acute
3. if this implementation approach is taken, the organisation type in question will
still be transitioned in all other aspects – all reference data will be applied and
the data made available in the XML products
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Copyright © 2014, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Organisation Data Interface Changes – Briefing Pack: End Users’ Impact Assessment v 0.1
Questions to Consider
The nature and areas of impact will vary greatly depending on the business need that
organisation data is supporting. This said a first, key question will apply in all instances:
“Does your organisation operate any information systems or business
processes that have a reliance on Organisation identifiers?”
The answer to this will almost certainly be yes. However if a list of all information systems
and processes that meet this criterion can be compiled, further questions can then be asked.
Some examples are listed below. These are by no means exhaustive however may provide
a helpful prompt to identify affected areas:
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
Is there any validation, elements of system architecture, or perhaps printed or
physical forms or labels that limit the length of codes that can be used to identify
Organisations? If so is this limit 4 characters or less?

Is any use made of the concept of ‘Organisation Type’? E.g. is behaviour modified in
any way depending on whether an Organisation is an NHS Trust as opposed to a
CCG, or a GP Practice, or Independent Sector etc.? If so, is an Organisation’s type
determined using filename or code format?

Is there any dependence on Organisation Sites, as opposed to parent organisations
e.g. records that identify the locations where treatment is provided or where
employees are based? If so, is there a requirement to identify the parent Organisation
associated with the Site, and is this determined using code format?

Do any existing business processes involve manual processing of data where human
beings need to identify Organisations, and is it necessary for them to identify the
types of those Organisations? If so, what level of tacit knowledge is employed by
these individuals i.e. do they ‘know’ certain Organisations’ identifiers? Also, what
volume of manual data-entry of Organisation codes does this process entail?

Do any systems or processes rely on the relationships between Organisations e.g. the
CCG responsible for a GP Practice?

Do any systems or processes rely on subtype values to distinguish between instances
of Organisations of a particular type? For example, Organisations of the type ‘Local
Authority’ are further distinguished with an indication of whether they are a Unitary
Authority, County Council, City Council etc.

Where processing of the existing CSV release files takes place in order to obtain
Organisation data, what are the implications of having to process XML instead?

Is it critical for the business need that is met by Organisation data to have up to date
information? If so, what would the implications be of refreshing information more
frequently than currently?

Is historic Organisation data required at any point?
Copyright © 2014, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Organisation Data Interface Changes – Briefing Pack: End Users’ Impact Assessment v 0.1
Example Impacts
Change Description
Impact Description
Suggested Mitigation
Increase identifier length to
5 characters
Field length restrictions may mean systems cannot accept codes, and that
screens and/or physical printed media are unable to display them
Redevelop systems, screens & printed
media to accommodate longer codes
Remove intelligent identifier
structure, introduce uniform
formatting of alternating
alpha-number (ANANA)
Systems will no longer be able to parse organisation code format to derive
Organisation Type
Use Primary Role meta-data to derive
organisation type
Systems will no longer be able to parse organisation code format to derive the
parent organisation of a site
Use Named Relationship meta-data to
derive the parent of a site
Identifiers will become very difficult to memorise and manually input
Move away from manual processes
It will be impossible for human users to determine organisation type from the
format of a code.
Systems, screen and physical media
should display Primary Role name
Move relationship
information from a static
field, to dynamic meta-data
Systems will no longer be able to rely on a particular type of relationship being
supplied in a single static field in the organisation record (e.g. field
15=commissioning organisation)
Use Relationship meta data
Increase relationship
publication capacity
Systems will no longer be able to assume that a single provided relationship is
the current or latest for the given organisation, or of a particular context
Use Relationship Name and start and
end dates to select the most
appropriate relationship
Move subtype information
from a static field, to
dynamic meta-data
Systems will no longer be able to rely on a particular subtype being supplied in
a single static field in the organisation record (for example field 26=practice
type, e.g. 1: Walk In Centre, 2: Out of Hours, 5: Prison, etc.)
Use Secondary Role meta data
Increase Secondary Role
(i.e. subtype) publication
capacity
Systems will no longer be able to assume that a single provided Secondary
Role (i.e. subtype) is the most current or appropriate (as multiple may be
provided)
Use Secondary Role name and start
and end dates to select the most
appropriate Secondary Role
Introduce quarterly XML
releases
More flexible, richer data available from November 2015, but will only be
available in XML
Redesign to handle XML
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Copyright © 2014, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Organisation Data Interface Changes – Briefing Pack: End Users’ Impact Assessment v 0.1
Change Description
Impact Description
Suggested Mitigation
XML releases increase in
frequency to weekly
More frequent updates available from November 2016, but only in XML
Redesign to handle weekly files (NB:
this is dependent on having already
transitioned to XML)
XML releases increase in
frequency to daily (date tbc)
More frequent updates available (date tbc), but only in XML
Redesign to handle daily files (NB: this
is dependent on having already
transitioned to XML)
CSV products deprecated
April 2019
Systems reliant on CSV format files for organisation data updates will no longer Redesign to handle XML
be able to obtain organisation data
Single new XML archive file
introduced November 2015;
all records flow in the main
organisation data with
periodic, forecasted
archiving to an XML archive
product when required to
streamline live files
Historic data will need to be sourced from main release file post November
2015 (instead of earchive.csv)
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Copyright © 2014, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Redevelop to interrogate close dates in
the main release file instead of the
stand-alone archive product