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Interweave Partner Case Study: Establishing a Regional Shared Care Record Platform in Doncaster
What is the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme?
The South Yorkshire Shared Care Record (SYSCR) programme is introducing a shared care record across the region. The programme is rolling out the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record, giving health and care professionals directly involved in an individual’s care a more complete view of the care and treatment that they have received across all services. The platform securely connects records from hospitals, GPs, mental health services and social care providers, ensuring professionals have the most up-to-date information when they need it. A total of 13 partner organisations including local authorities and NHS organisations are involved in advancing the programme in South Yorkshire, across the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield areas.
What was the challenge in Doncaster?
South Yorkshire is unusual when compared to many other parts of England in that there has been recent access to three different shared care record platforms. For a number of years, there have been two Place-based records – the Rotherham Health Record (RHR) and the Integrated Doncaster Care Record (IDCR) – as well as a more recent platform, the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR), which covers the whole of the integrated care system area.
With advances made over the past year in delivering the YHCR, a position was reached where it was no longer making sense as a health and care system to run multiple shared care records. Having three platforms was overly-complex, risked duplication and a varied user experience.
A decision was taken by the Doncaster Place Committee in November 2024 to switch from the IDCR to the YHCR. This decision was based on providing the widest view of shared care record information for health and care professionals, as well as making best use of financial and programme resource.
What took place?
A deadline was set of switching off the IDCR at the end of March 2025, with all local Doncaster health and care organisations having full access to the YHCR from 1 April 2025. Engagement and training projects were set up for 29 Doncaster area GP practices, City of Doncaster Council and FCMS (a social enterprise health and wellbeing services provider). The collaborative efforts of the SYSCR programme team and organisational representatives ensured that the deadline was achieved with about a week to spare.
What are the benefits?
Katie Dowson, SYSCR programme director, said: “The South Yorkshire-wide adoption of the YHCR will help to support a standardised level of information being shared across South Yorkshire so health and care professionals will have the same experience whether they are working in the Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham or Sheffield areas. Furthermore, the YHCR brings together information on the health and care services that people have received not only in South Yorkshire but across the wider Yorkshire and Humber region. There is a wealth of data available in the YHCR that allows health and care professionals to provide more holistic assessments and care of an individual. As information within the YHCR grows, care staff will have access to more data than they have ever had before. This will be particularly helpful within care homes for example, especially those that are on boundary lines, such as a Doncaster care home that may be linked to a Rotherham GP practice.”
Reflections on the process
Craig Stevens, SYSCR programme team member who helped achieve the transition to the YHCR in Doncaster, said: “The timescales involved presented a sizeable challenge to the programme team and there were significant risks to partner organisations if the switch-over was not achieved in time. I’m very proud that we were able to deliver the move to the YHCR to deadline with seamless engagement and effective relationship management. The partner organisations were very responsive and helpful, making it a great team effort all-round.”
What is next?
Within Doncaster, the programme team will continue to work with local organisations to ensure the roll-out among teams and departments continues and any initial issues are sorted as quickly as possible. More and more data is being added into the YHCR all the time so it will become even more useful to health and care practitioners in the months ahead.
Over the next year, the programme will also review the need to retain the other Place-based record in the area, the Rotherham Health Record, alongside the YHCR. No decision on this has been taken at the moment. Key factors in any future decision-making are likely to include ensuring health and care practitioners can access the most helpful data sets and making best use of resource in a challenging financial climate.
Further information
For further information, please visit the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme webpage: https://syics.co.uk/digital_innovations/shared-care-record
There is a specific webpage on the developments that have taken place in Doncaster: https://syics.co.uk/digital_innovations/shared-care-record/integrated-doncaster-care-record-idcr
To contact the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme team, please email: syicb.scr@nhs.net