Health and Social Care Organisation Reference Data is reference data about the ORGANISATIONS that comprise the health and social care SERVICES, primarily in England but also in the other UK-constituent countries.

The data is distributed and uploaded to health IT systems. It supports user security, access control, messaging and is used as reference data for both operations and reporting.

Note: Health and Social Care Organisation Reference Data is governed by the fundamental standard for "Health and Social Care Organisation Reference Data" (HSC Org Ref Data).

The Health and Social Care Organisation Reference Data is issued to NHS users monthly via Technology Reference Update Distribution (TRUD).

Updates to the Health and Social Care Organisation Reference Data are also available daily via the Organisation Data Service (ODS) website at: Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for the Organisation Data Service.

Where valid Health and Social Care Organisation Reference Data is required but is not available or not known, an Organisation Data Service Default Code can be used to provide a substitute value.