Join us on Wednesday 5th May at 13:00 GMT for an engaging workshop focussed on referrals into and within the voluntary sector:

“How do we implement Open Referrals to support the UK voluntary sector?”

This session will look at how the UK can implement a nation-wide Open Referrals system to facilitate better collaboration between NHS, local authorities and third sector. 

About this event

Cross-sector referrals play an essential role in ensuring people’s wellbeing in society. There is an opportunity to replace existing, predominantly phone and paper-based, referral processes with truly digital solutions – and through this increase the uptake of the wide range of services available within the voluntary sector.

This is what the Open Referrals project, part of the Catalyst and The National Lottery Community COVID-19 Digital Response Fund is starting to do. By implementing the Open Referral UK data standard to enable voluntary sector organisations to publish information about the services they provide, other organisations are able to search and find them in an efficient way. This will improve the referral process for people, their family, and carers.

Are you a voluntary organisation who struggles to collaborate with local authorities or health and social care organisations? Or are you a social prescriber who has the complex challenge of referring patients to the best service available?

Come along to this online workshop in which you will learn:

  1. The impact of Open Referrals on the voluntary sector and local authorities
  2. The work done so far
  3. How charities and social prescribers can get started using Open Referrals in their own localities

The second part of this workshop will involve smaller breakout room sessions to gather insight from potential users of this solution. This will provide attendees with an opportunity to contribute to a fundamental project which will result in better outcomes for people in need.

Interested in learning more about Open Referrals and the Open Referral data standard? Read our explainer blog here.