LOOP

Owned by Toby Page
Last updated: Jan 19, 2021
4 min read

Background

Within the Leeds health economy there are several hundred websites providing health and care information. This information ranges from self-management educational materials, applications, leaflets and a range of statutory, voluntary, community and social enterprise led services. Currently organisations are all engaged in a similar and repetitive cycle of providing online information, predominantly through multiple layers of Directories of Services (DoS).  Directories collect this data and manage it in their own databases and in isolation.  As a result of this fragmented provision, there are significant data gaps, duplication and inaccuracies, with no single website providing a comprehensive, trusted or accurate level of information. 

LOOP addresses the current issues associated with database siloes, limited or no data standards, inconsistent quality assurance and no sharing of service data.  It does so by providing an open data service that allows all directories, websites and applications in Leeds to take a feed from a single, accurate and trusted source. In practice this means providing a single database, which aggregates and validates data that can then be extracted and fed through to websites in addition to third-party applications such as Helm.  

LOOP has significant potential to increase the breadth and quality of self-management resource returns by enabling both service users, their families, and the professionals supporting them to access accurate, up-to-date and clinically validated self-help information.   LOOP is also highly relevant to Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) by putting third-sector organisations in greater control of their information and providing them with the opportunity to share it with a wider audience.  

LOOP will make it easier for people to access more relevant and up-to-date resources and community service listings to increase their self-management capabilities and maintain their independence for longer. 

Objectives

Phase 1 Adoption Scope

Phase 1 will see the following key ‘Directories of Services’ adopt LOOP over the next 12 months:

  • Forum Central: Third sector service updates as a result of the Covid pandemic followed by wider service listings

  • Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL):  LOOP will replace their current Third Sector searchable database on Doing Good Leeds (DGL) as the new version of DGL goes live in mid Sept.  LOOP will link with Doing Good Data (DGD) via an API to provide organisational data updates, ensuring DGD/LOOP remains up to date. 

  • Inspire North: LOOP adoption by Inspire North for Community Links to host their citywide social prescribing database.

  • Leeds Directory: Co-design and build of a new Leeds Directory and integration /interoperability with LOOP.

  • MindWell: LOOP adoption by MindWell following completion of their new website build in March 2021.

  • Funding will also enable up to 6 smaller websites across Leeds to adopt LOOP during the 12 month period. 

  • The LOOP model also takes into account the cultural changes required to build a data co-operative across the city. Funding will enable the appointment of a Community Builder role to act as a bridge between the project and its funders.   This appointed individual will work with LOOP users to support them to become a true and sustainable data co-operative, facilitate the sharing of best practice and ensure that there is coordinated investment to support collaborative approaches to data products.

Phase 2 scope gathering

Phase 1 will also see the development of a Business Case for the next phase of LOOP adoption. This will flow from engagement with wider organisations.  Strong candidates for LOOP adoption will be brought to the Personalised Care Steering Group - Digital Sub-Group for agreement with a request for contribution of potential candidates from the members of this group.

Progress to Date

LOOP Adoption (key Information directories)

Forum Central: LOOP is now live on the Forum Central website, currently pulling through the coronavirus services and resources updates https://forumcentral.org.uk/coronavirus-services/

Leeds Directory:  Initial consultations with Leeds Directory providers (PCG) to establish the work required of them to enable LOOP adoption. 

Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL) / Doing Good Leeds: Development and testing completed to integrate LOOP with VAL’s CiviCRM. 

Linking Leeds: As part of Linking Leeds commitment to LOOP, consultation continues to understand how they can land a LOOP feed on their webpages and become a LOOP contributor.  Further discussions are taking place to ascertain how the LOOP model will work for them in practice.

MindWell: Consultation with mHabitat as to building LOOP integration into the MindWell website rebuild commission.

Resources

LOOP Community Builder Role: Community Builder Role Profile and recruitment activities complete, including the development of a Grant Agreement. This role will be hosted by Forum Central via a 12 month Grant Agreement with the aim that this role will build a community of LOOP users and support relationship building to develop a sustainable cross-organisation LOOP user community.  The role will also focus on engaging the skills, knowledge and talent of this group; operate through partnership principles, with a key focus on the use of data to benefit the people of Leeds.

Technical Development

Widget Build: High level design and requirements capture completed for the LOOP Widget which will provide a robust generic integration option for LOOP adopters going forward. Requirements will be elaborated in the first part of 2021 to ensure the widget meets the needs of representative adopters.

Communications and Promotion: LOOP was part of the Digital Leaders week.  The video of presentations and discussions can be found at the following link: https://week.digileaders.com/talks/the-loop-leeds-online-open-platform-story/.