We're currently inviting people across social care to share their views on our draft minimum operating data standards (MODS) for social care in Wales.
MODS are an agreed set of essential data items, definitions and terminology that help people record and share information consistently. They make it easier for data to be shared between organisations and systems when needed.
The feedback exercise is an important step in developing these standards. It gives us the opportunity to hear from people working across social care and make sure the standards are clear, practical and reflect the needs of the sector, helping to improve the quality of care and support.
But the feedback exercise is only part of the story.
In this blog, Owen Davies, our Head of Strategic Data Programmes, explains why we're developing data standards for social care in Wales, what we've learned from similar work elsewhere, and how practitioners, managers, data specialists and digital professionals are helping to shape the standards.
The development of data standards forms part of our strategic data programme and is funded by the Connecting Care for Social Care Programme (CCSCP) and the National Data Resource (NDR).
A long-standing challenge
Wanting to become better at sharing information isn't a new challenge.
The first policy document in Wales to set out the need for health and social care to work more closely together was published in 2001. In the 25 years since, a range of approaches have been tried to share data between organisations more effectively. None of those approaches have been entirely successful or delivered the level of information sharing professionals need to access data about the people they support.
In 2020, the need to share data between organisations was identified again through our discovery work with KPMG on developing a strategic approach to data in social care in Wales. This also highlighted the need for data standards. By agreeing common definitions, organisations can share information with more confidence and trust that it means the same thing wherever it's used.
Sharing data more effectively and creating standardised approaches for our digital and data products became objectives in our Statement of Strategic Intent the following year. Since then, we've undertaken a range of projects that have started to turn those ambitions into action.
A targeted approach
In 2025, we started working with BetterGov and Answer Digital to develop data standards for social care in Wales.
Our research suggested that we could take a more targeted approach by agreeing which information needed to be shared and creating common standards for that data.
This is a more proportionate solution because:
- we only need to standardise the data we need to share, not every element in a form or system
- we can give organisations the freedom to choose approaches and structures that suit their local needs, without unnecessarily forcing everyone to work the same way
- we can build on existing data standards and interoperability frameworks instead of creating everything from scratch
- we can add or amend standards as required, making this approach match the needs of social care as it evolves.
Learning from others
We also wanted to learn from successful social care data-sharing projects around the world, particularly those that were already in operation.
We were especially interested in projects in the UK that had successfully shared data using processes based on open standards that allow systems used in the public sector to more easily share data.
A recent project in England, linked to the country's Digitising Social Care Programme, adapted a framework originally developed for health so it could be used with social care data. The work was based on adult social care data standards developed by the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) and focused on care providers.
Systems developers who integrated these standards into their products were then recognised as assured digital social care records (DSCR) providers. Providers could then use programme grants to implement these systems, helping more to use digital systems to manage their work. This became the first minimum operating data standard for social care in the UK.
Alongside MODS, the programme used a framework called Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (or FHIR - pronounced like the word "fire"). FHIR is an open-source standard managed by the non-profit HL7 organisation. It's widely used across health services internationally and has been adopted by the NHS in the UK and, as a result, by the National Data Resource programme in Wales.
This work helped shape our approach to developing a minimum operating data standard for social care in Wales.
A user-led approach
It was important to us that the people who would use the standards helped shape their development.
Too many digital and data projects are designed without enough input from the people who use them. If these standards were going to be accepted and used in Wales, we needed to develop them with the people who understand social care practice best.
Social care practitioners have the knowledge and experience to tell us what information is important and what information is most likely to be shared with others.
In 2025, we engaged with people working across social care in Wales to understand the information that's collected and shared when delivering services for adults and children.
In total, we met with people from 14 local authorities in Wales, as well as independent providers. Engagement took place through workshops, focus groups and interviews. We also held data events in north and south Wales, where we ran additional workshops to gather further insight.
Identifying priorities
As well as identifying use cases, or situations where information would need to be shared, we used this work to understand people's priorities and where they felt common standards could have the biggest impact.
This resulted in an initial list of 10 use cases covering familiar areas of practice. These were later refined into 12 use cases for the next stage of development:
- Information about the Person (Demographics)
- Front Door
- Hospital Discharge
- Reablement
- Case Closure
- Adult Safeguarding
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
- Carers (Adults and Young Carers)
- Children Requiring Care and Support
- Child Protection
- Children Looked After
- Workforce
These priority use cases became the foundation for MODS development.
Developing draft standards together
Each of the use cases identified in the first phase of our work included individual pieces of information that might need to be shared between organisations, known as data items. These were developed through our conversations with people working in social care.
To review the proposed data items and agree common definitions, we’ve set up a writing group made up of people working in social care. We've invited practitioners, managers, and data and digital specialists from local authorities and regional partnerships across Wales to join the group.
Group members are guided by data standards experts to work through the proposed data items, discussing what information should be included and agreeing definitions that could be used consistently across Wales.
The writing group are developing the draft data standards by writing definitions for each proposed data item. They can also add items they feel are missing or remove items they feel won't meet the needs of practitioners.
Having a dedicated group makes the process easier to manage and provides continuity throughout the work. It also gives members the time and space to work together to develop the draft data standards.
How you can help
We have now reached the testing and feedback stage of the development process.
The draft standards are being developed for each of the priority use cases, and we're now inviting you to share your views on them.
By testing the standards with a wider group, we can hear from people with different roles, experiences and perspectives from across social care.
We know social care is a complex area of work. That's why we want staff, managers and leaders to have the opportunity to review the standards and tell us what they think.
The more feedback we receive, the more confident we can be that the standards are clear, practical and reflect the needs of the sector. We also want to identify anything we've missed, anything that's difficult to understand, or anything that could have an unintended impact on particular groups of people.
You don't need any technical knowledge to provide feedback. The draft standards have been developed with practitioners to be understood by people who work in the delivery of care and support and support for unpaid carers in Wales. That’s why it's important that we hear from practitioners as part of this feedback, as well as from people who work in data and digital roles.
We’ll publish the draft standards for feedback in three blocks of use cases. The first block is already open for feedback.
Visit our feedback page for full details of how you can tell us what you think about the draft standards.
Looking ahead
Once we've received feedback, we'll review it and, where needed, take it back to the writing group for further discussion.
We'll pay particular attention to feedback that suggests:
- the standards may not work well for a particular group of people
- common concerns have been raised
- assumptions have been overlooked
- additional common needs have been identified.
At the end of the process, we'll publish a report summarising the feedback we received, the decisions that were made, and the reasons for those decisions.
The use cases and final draft standards will then move into the approval process as the draft minimum operating data standards for social care in Wales.
This process will include review and approval through the Enabling Data and Process Standards (EDPS) Steering Group, the CCSCP and NDR Boards, and the Association of Directors of Social Services Cymru.
Once these stages are complete, we'll seek ratification from the Digital and Data Standards Board for Wales and continue working with systems suppliers, local authorities and social care providers to support adoption of the standards.
