CAST Project: Weeknotes 1
The SICCAR team are working with CAST as part of Catalyst, to build a scalable and re-usable tech prototype to support referrals into and within the voluntary sector.
The aim is to improve referrals processes for people, their family members and carers. Proving the means for voluntary sector organisations to publish information about themselves and the specific services that they provide within a locality; and for statutory organisations, like the NHS and Local Authorities, to search for relevant voluntary sector organisations and services in the same locality.
Three weeks into the 11-week initiative, we’re keen to share some of our early insights:
· There is a great deal of local variation in the way that statutory and voluntary organisations interact, and that information is captured, shared and used. Further there’s a range of tech solutions that support voluntary sector referrals, that work in a number of different ways.
· To build a scalable and reusable prototype, standardisation will be key. Using the UK Open Referral Standards — that has developed by the Ministry for Housing and Local Government — provides an excellent opportunity to achieve this. We think that SICCAR’s distributed ledger technology, will enhance on this opportunity by attributing ‘canonical truth’ to the data.
· The value in the prototype, can’t be derived from the tech alone, but will depend upon its uptake across local health, social care and voluntary sector ecosystems.
We’ve started to describe the prototype, based on a handful of key features and user stories.
Over the next few weeks we’re going to be working with social prescribers and voluntary sector service managers to get a deeper understand of the issues and opportunities. And to define the user needs for the prototype.
