Organisation Data Service - data coverage

The Organisation Data Service (ODS) issues and manages unique identification codes (ODS codes) and accompanying reference data for organisations that interact with any area of the NHS. 

This page explains some of the aspects of our data coverage you might encounter while using one of our ODS products, including the ODS APIs.

ODS have developed a Reference Data Catalogue to define:

• the scope of ODS data – what types of organisation we provide codes for

• geographical scope of ODS data - the geographical coverage of each organisation type

• the ODS data model – what are the individual data items within an organisation record

• the types of relationships - how organisation entities can be linked together

• how we maintain and manage the data - definitions of any business rules or validation applied to the data prior to publication

This is a single Reference Data Catalogue that is applicable to all ODS products. Our aim is to make our information about ODS data is more accessible to users and withdraw some of our legacy support products such as the ODS Repository.

Currently the method of publication for the reference data catalogue is as html pages accessed via the ODS Data Search and Export tool. We recognise the presentation format is not ideal. This is an interim solution whilst we explore more appropriate publication tools.

If you'd like to give us recommendations about this, contact us at [email protected]

The Reference Data Catalogue outlines the organisation types and primary roles we publish data for.

Alternatively, the ORD API has a CodeSystem Roles endpoint that returns all ‘roles’ included in ODS data. The Organisation Data Terminology API also has a CodeSystem Roles endpoint that contains:

• primary roles - organisation types

• non-primary roles - non mandatory roles that provide further information regarding organisation function

The various non-primary roles an organisation can have, and the relationships that can be found between organisation types, are detailed in the Reference Data Catalogue.

From the point that data is created/updated in our core database, the timescales for that information being published varies across the ODS product suite as follows:

ODS also maintains and publishes the following national registers:

• Caldicott Guardian (CG) register
• Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) register
• Information Asset Owner (IAO) register
• Safe Haven Directory