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The NHS Standards Directory: Discover the standards that help NHS systems connect and serve patients better

Picture of Adam By   ·  3 minute read

For most of the 19th century, British railways ran on incompatible track gauges. Goods had to be unloaded and reloaded at every regional border, until a common gauge unlocked the network. NHS data faces a similar challenge. Although years of work across the NHS has gone into producing standards that could help data flow — they've sat scattered across different teams, sites and documents. And a standard only delivers value when it's actually used.

The NHS Standards Directory pulls them together in one place: somewhere to find standards, understand how to apply them, develop new ones, and spot duplication that can be stripped out to make health and care more efficient. Today, it supports more than 8,000 users and hosts over 350 information standards, helping to build robust data foundations across the NHS.

Read on to find out how we did it…

The Challenge

Prior to working with MetadataWorks, the NHS England team used CKAN tooling, which they found to be limited in flexibility and difficult to tailor to the evolving needs of a complex health and care ecosystem.

“CKAN was designed for a previous world of physical files and explaining what those might contain. The NHS Standards Directory needed a system that could enable us to represent standards knowledge and documentation in an online, accessible and structured way.” — Bharat Sharma, Lead Product Manager, Technology, Strategy, Architecture and Standards, NHS England

MetadataWorks was tasked with delivering a user-friendly solution adhering to FAIR data principles to;

    • Promote consistency and reliability in health and adult social care data across thousands of organisations, from hospitals to GP practices in England.
    • Provide a single, trusted source for standards to support interoperable systems, robust security, and high-quality patient data.
    • Align with the evolving requirements of the legal basis of information standards.

Why Choose MetadataWorks?

NHS England selected MetadataWorks for its:

    • Proven experience in metadata management to support standards implementation across secure health and adult social care environments.
    • Ability to design scalable, production-ready platforms that integrate seamlessly with systems.
    • Expertise in iterative, user friendly design ensuring solutions meet real-world needs.
    • Strong collaborative approach, providing ongoing support and guidance to optimise adoption and usability.

The goal was clear: create a user-friendly standards directory that makes health and adult social care data FAIRer (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) and ready to support the NHS 10 year plan.

The Solution
MetadataWorks partnered with NHS England to deliver the NHS Standards Directory by:

    • Conducting user research to understand health and adult social care providers’ needs in finding and applying information standards.
    • Designing a metadata profile using DCAT and Schema.org to describe standards in a consistent way ensuring they can be used by those working across the health and adult social care landscape.
    • Deploying the profile within the MetadataWorks toolkit for iterative testing and refinement.
    • Migrating content from legacy systems into a modern, accessible interface.
    • Integrating the backend of the NHS Standards Directory with NHS branding guidelines and design patterns to create a familiar and accessible user experience.
    • Prototyping, testing, and iterating the system continuously based on user feedback to ensure usability and functionality.

Impact
The NHS Standards Directory now provides a centralised, reliable source of health and adult social care information standards, enabling:

    • High data quality and consistency: reducing duplication and discrepancies, improving health and care outcomes. Over 350 information standards are now published in the directory, and in use within the health and care system.
    • User-friendly experience: intuitive interface with ongoing enhancements informed by user feedback, with over 8,000 unique visitors accessing the site since its beta launch in 2022.
    • Improved information flow and interoperability: accurate, real-time sharing of data across diverse systems, such as the Booking and Referral (BaRS) and Adult Social Care Digital Social Care Record: Minimum Operational Data Standard (MODS) with included data specification viewer.
    • Enhanced security: consistent application of secure email and data protection standards, available from this source.

Why It Matters
This initiative demonstrates how a centralised standards directory can:

    • Promote consistent, high-quality practices across the health and adult social care landscape in England.
    • Replace fragmented approaches with scalable, sustainable solutions.
    • Make it easier for information standards to be found, understood, and implemented.
    • Support national health and adult social care reforms, and legislative requirements.

A Word From NHS England

“The MetadataWorks team enabled us to deliver a reliable, best-practice standards directory. It has improved data consistency, security, and accessibility across the NHS and adult social and continues to evolve based on real user needs. This project accelerates our ability to deliver better patient care while reducing administrative burdens.”

— Bharat Sharma, Lead Product Manager, Technology, Strategy, Architecture and Standards, NHS England

Discover standards that help data work together for users in England

Use the NHS Standards Directory service to find out about recognised published and future standards in health and adult social care.

You can also keep informed of updates directly from the team by subscribing to the Information Standards Bulletin.

Learn more about the build

For information on how implementing a standards directory could help unlock the power of your data, contact MetadataWorks for a free consultation.