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Digital Maturity & Standardisation

Digital Maturity of VCFSE sector
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Por11010 - ODI Social Prescribing work - Technical Review: 1. The maturity of Social Prescribing
⁠
⁠

The maturity of Social Prescribing

There is no significant standardisation across social prescribing software at present. NHSX recognises the need for standardisation and is consulting on the requirements for social prescribing software bought under its Health Systems Support Framework (HSSF) framework. Its
HSSF Essential & Desirable Proposed Criteria Final.pdf
⁠
refers to both
@OA
⁠
and the
@ORUK
⁠
standard as well as relevant taxonomies. A London Sport programme looking at “Social prescription and referral services” is funding a number of small pilots to explore the potential for increasing take up of physical activity where OpenActive data information, alongside some other potential tools, can be surfaced to Social Prescribers and their clients.
There’s a lot of overlap between the
@OA
⁠
standard for opportunities to be active and the
@ORUK
⁠
standard for service information. ORUK is an extension of the international
@OR
⁠
standard with an application profile designed principally for social prescribing by the Local Government’s
Tackling Loneliness project
⁠
(PDF download) funded by the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport.
The terms “activity” and “opportunity” used by OA are largely analogous to the OR term “service”.
OA is a flexible standard that caters for describing a schedule of activities, individual bookable activities, allocation of bookable space (e.g. a sports hall that can accommodate multiple badminton courts) via the
Modelling Opportunity Data Standard
⁠
. The
Routeguide standard
⁠
defines the data structure for outdoor exercise routes. The two data structures of main interest (both derived from the opportunity data standard) to social prescribers are:
⁠
Session series
⁠
- describing an activity and the dates/times when it is delivered
⁠
Scheduled session
⁠
- describing individual activities which are normally available for booking.

In the field of social prescribing, there are three levels at which software might apply standards:
Finding activities
Booking activities
Gathering intelligence on social prescribing activity and outcomes.

The benefit of data standards is that it will ensure that Social Prescribing software can fit seamlessly into the wider set of technology across a place. Without adopting common standards, software platforms will rely on duplication for the same type of information across a single place, the experiences for customers will remain poor and repetitive where information about services will be inaccurate and they will need to repeat their history for each single interaction. Ultimately this will drive up the cost of procuring these systems and the public sector will remain locked into costly contracts where the provider dictates the terms, as moving to a new provider is such an enormous undertaking.

Digital maturity of
Social Prescribing applications
⁠
providers

The information below, therefore, provides an overview of some of the leading providers in the Social Prescribing application market. This information is based upon some light-touch market research and should not be taken as an authoritative assessment. It provides the context for ODI to consider how to best position the OpenActive standard into this marketplace.
Broadly, the market is fairly well-developed, in that there are a number of products with some traction in the market. This brief report cannot comment on the technical capability or performance of the products. What is a more important consideration is the digital maturity of the organisation and process that specifies the requirements for the procurement process. It was clear throughout the work, that providers will provide what is requested; what is missing is the commitment by local partners to adopt Open Data and Data Standards as a strategy, and to hold the providers to account to delivering against a specification.
For example, most pertinent obviously to this project is that none of the products to date are implemented in line with a true Open Data philosophy where the information is being captured once and re-used more widely across other software. Some of the providers are starting to pilot this capability, but the preference tends to be remain a desire to hold their own directory that is non data standard compliant as this tends to lock-in the contract, because moving the data from one system to a new supplier is such an undertaking. What is required is improved contracting and commissioning, which is recommended in the summary documents as critical.
As a further comment on digital maturity, the other consideration must be the digital maturity of activity and wider community service providers. The
attached report,
⁠
offers some oversight of the digital maturity of the third sector across Lancashire. This was commissioned by Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System and delivered by Active Lancashire and does recognise the role of activity providers. The document demonstrates significant recognition that a single Directory (which by design must adopt a data standard) seems the right way forward, with 93% of the 239 organisations reporting to be very interested or somewhat interested in a well-designed directory.
The document does indicate that digital skills are a concern in the sector, although these have evolved markedly since March 2020, and that more broadly resource constraints continue to create bottle-necks. It also signals an important role for Open Data leaders to play to support the sector; for example that there needs to be a greater focus on the actual customer experience to be able to interface directly with the data that can answer their query in terms of service or activity offers. So for example, what activity or service do you want, what is the location, what eligibility or interests are important and what times of the day are available; that is what people are seeking. Digital for many in the sector remains a conversation about using Zoom, being computer literate and having a website; as an approach this will continue to deliver a customer experience that relies on trawling 15 different websites about 15 different potential offers, which often don’t actually deliver anything other than further signposting. The resulting work, informed in many ways by the research above work, across Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria to implement a system-wide Digital Catalogue is a leading example of how this can
model work
⁠
, improving the customer experience and ensuring people are signposted more quickly to the most appropriate community service at the right time.
Eligibility criteria:
The platforms included in this brief market review, were based upon an understanding that they are a dedicated
@SP
⁠
software solution, where the main purpose is for the referral of patients (either from a Primary Care system or other route), the ability for frontline workers to refer or signpost patients, or for self-access and use or self-care use by clients or family members themselves, to the third sector and community assets or used to find services & physical activities in a local area.
The following list has been compiled from the
Digital Marketplace
⁠
, supplier engagement and user research. Priority was given to application providers that could were found to be promoting Case Studies or there was evidence of
G cloud spend
⁠
.

Capability mapping

The following list of applications and their assessed capabilities is based on our desk based research with the available online resources. Further investigation with the providers will be required to establish a richer picture into their technical
capabilities
⁠
.
The following resources were used to form a judgement on whether a certain platform offered the identified sets of capabilities. These judgements are indicative; in considering how to progress OpenActive are advised to provide an opportunity through a transparent procurement process for all providers to engage in any subsequent consultation.
Digital Marketplace
Provider websites
Provider technical documentation
User research

According to
@Social Prescribing Platforms Market Exploration
⁠
the common core functionality of social prescribing platforms include:
• Hosting (and or linking to) a directory of services
• Referral capabilities
• Monitoring capabilities
• Reporting and analytics dashboards.
Assumptions
Platforms that have integration with Leading GP systems such as EMIS can
@Consume API
⁠
&
@Export API
⁠
Platforms that have the ability to manage referrals provide the capabilities of
@Workflow
⁠
&
@Notifications - Email / Text
⁠
Platforms that have the ability to book events or sessions provide the capabilities of
@Booking
⁠
&
@Notifications - Email / Text
⁠
and may also provide
@Workflow
⁠
Platforms that have the ability to provide a
@DOS
⁠
with taxonomies or offer reporting functions that provide the
@Controlled lists
⁠
capability

Digital maturity assessment

The following social prescribing digital maturity index for social prescribing applications has been developed using the following broad categories. The two axes in the diagram below are “degree of integration between the software and other software across the care and health system” and “stand-alone capability of the platform itself”.
Low: A collection of information in some form of directory of services used within a social prescribing initiative
Medium: Social prescribing system that has progressed beyond a simple Directory of service to provide a platform that integrates with other social prescribing applications.
High: Advance social prescribing platform with a full range of
Capabilities
⁠
that may also integrate with health systems

⁠
Research workshop - DMI (2).jpg
⁠
⁠

Market Leaders

Social prescribing platforms were assessed against a series of evaluations to ascertain whether they are classed as Market leaders. The shortlisted provider list from
@Social Prescribing Platforms Market Exploration
⁠
report is also used within the assessment. The findings in this report offer similar conclusions as the short exercise in this project. The providers have been mapped against the information below
⁠
Capabilities
⁠
Digital Maturity
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2020/2021 GCloud spend
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⁠
Digital Maturity of Social prescribing systems
Maturity
Application provider type
Platform name
Provider
Target end user
Capabilities
Aligned to data standard
Market leaders
2020/2021 Gcloud spend by company
1
High
Social prescribing
Social Prescribing Software
⁠
Elemental software
⁠
⁠
Frontline workers
Managers
Service users
Activity providers
Consume API
Export API
Booking
Case Management
Notifications - Email / Text
Workflow
Identity Management
Controlled lists
Forms
DOS
OpenActive
OpenReferral
£67,000
2
High
Social prescribing
Simply Connect Social Prescribing Platform
Simply Connect Solutions Ltd
Frontline workers
Activity providers
Managers
Booking
Workflow
Notifications - Email / Text
Consume API
Export API
Forms
Assessments
Controlled lists
Case Management
Identity Management
DOS
None
N/A
3
High
Patient portal
Social prescribing
Volunteer management
The Priority Patient Management System (PMS)
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PRIORITY DIGITAL HEALTH LIMITED
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⁠
Managers
Frontline workers
Service users
Case Management
Booking
Advanced Workflow
Notifications - Email / Text
Forms
Consume API
Export API
Assessments
Identity Management
None
N/A
4
High
Social prescribing
RIVIAM Digital Care - Wellbeing
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⁠
⁠
RIVIAM Digital Care
⁠
⁠
Frontline workers
Activity providers
Service users
Case Management
Consume API
Export API
Workflow
Notifications - Email / Text
Forms
Identity Management
Assessments
None
£222,223
5
High
Social prescribing
i-Navigator
Signum Health
Frontline workers
Managers
Consume API
Export API
Case Management
Forms
Assessments
Controlled lists
Workflow
None
N/A
6
Low
Social prescribing
Care Banking : Social Prescribing
Care Banking
Managers
Frontline workers
Workflow
Case Management
Forms
None
N/A
7
Low
Social prescribing
Directory of Services
Joy - Social Prescribing solution
PUNGO LTD
Frontline workers
Managers
Assessments
Workflow
Notifications - Email / Text
Case Management
Controlled lists
DOS
None
N/A
8
Medium
Social prescribing
Theseus: Social Prescribing Case Management
Cyber Media Solutions Ltd.
Service users
Frontline workers
Managers
Case Management
Workflow
Assessments
Forms
Consume API
Export API
Controlled lists
DOS
OpenActive
£63,000
9
Medium
Social prescribing
Social Rx Connect
SOCIAL RX LIMITED
Frontline workers
Activity providers
Managers
Export API
Consume API
Controlled lists
Case Management
Workflow
Notifications - Email / Text
Identity Management
DOS
None
N/A
10
Medium
Social prescribing
Evergreen Life
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Evergreen Health Solutions Limited
⁠
⁠
Frontline workers
Service users
Booking
Forms
Case Management
Assessments
Identity Management
None
N/A
11
Medium
Social prescribing
Refernet
⁠
Viccari Wheele
⁠
⁠
Frontline workers
Managers
Case Management
Booking
Identity Management
Notifications - Email / Text
Controlled lists
Forms
Workflow
DOS
None
N/A
12
Medium
Social prescribing
Care Partner
Imosphere
Frontline workers
Managers
Case Management
Assessments
Forms
Controlled lists
Booking
Workflow
None
£84,000
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