We regularly publish news updates about Shared Care Records.
See below for the most recent news articles.
Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (DBTH) has gone live with the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR), improving how the organisation accesses and shares patient information across health and social care services.
The new IT 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.
Mike Whiteside, Chief Clinical Information Officer at DBTH, said: “For colleagues, this means easier access to key patient details, fewer delays in retrieving information and better coordination between teams. With a complete view of a patient’s history, we can reduce duplication, streamline discharge planning and provide safer, more personalised care.
“Only identified clinicians - doctors, nurses and allied health professionals - will receive access. The system does not store information but securely connects existing records in real time. Patients do not need to take any action, but they have the option to object to inclusion if they wish.”
DBTH staff are being encouraged to log into the new shared care record via their existing clinical portal where they will be able to see a menu link to the YHCR. The Trust has established a communications plan to help roll-out the new platform across teams and departments.
In other developments, more information is being added into the shared care record by a neighbouring health service organisation, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (STH). STH has added information including inpatient discharge summaries, outpatient clinic letters and emergency department discharge summaries. The more information in the shared care record, the more useful it becomes to users.
The YHCR is being rolled out via the SYSCR programme, part of the national Connecting Care Records initiative. Currently, there are 13 local NHS organisations and local authorities involved in advancing the programme in South Yorkshire, across the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield areas.
For further information, please visit the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme webpage: https://syics.co.uk/digital_innovations/shared-care-record
To contact the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme team, please email:
Growing numbers of staff are being trained across South Yorkshire to use the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR).
The YHCR is bringing together people’s separate records into a structured, easy-to-read format. This gives health and care professionals directly involved in an individual’s care a more complete view of the care and treatment that an individual has received across all services.
In January 2025, a total of 124 staff attended workshops in understanding and using the YHCR – with increases in that figure expected in weeks to come. Staff from across a number of partner organisations have taken part in the recent training sessions.
Katie Dowson, South Yorkshire Shared Care Record (SYSCR) programme director, said: “As more and more organisations and staff start using the YHCR, it will mean people living in the region will receive better, safer care and treatment, thanks to the introduction of joined-up health and care records.”
The YHCR allows for information recorded about someone’s health and care such as illnesses, treatments and hospital admissions to be accessed by different people who are involved in their care. Currently, different hospitals, GPs and other health and care workers record separate pieces of information, which are not always shared. This can cause care and treatment delays, with organisations having to forward important facts by phone, email or paper. Shared care records enable the most up-to-date information to be available at any time they are needed.
The YHCR is being rolled out via the SYSCR programme, part of the national Connecting Care Records initiative. Currently, there are 13 local NHS organisations and local authorities involved in advancing the programme in South Yorkshire, across the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield areas.
For further information, please visit the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme webpage: https://syics.co.uk/digital_innovations/shared-care-record
To contact the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme team, please email:
Sheffield City Council is the first local authority to go live in the South Yorkshire region with the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR).
When fully implemented, it will mean people living in the city will receive better, safer care and treatment, thanks to the introduction of joined-up health and care records.
The YHCR is bringing together people’s separate records into a structured, easy-to-read format. This gives health and care professionals directly involved in an individual’s care a more complete view of the care and treatment that an individual has received across all services.
The first teams to receive training and support within Sheffield City Council on using the YHCR have been the First Contact and Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) teams.
Jack Cook, a social worker in the First Contact duty team, said: “The shared care record has proved to be an invaluable resource for our duty team working at the front door of adult social care. It has saved our time having to contact GP surgeries for information and has even resulted in safe and well visits being averted due to us being able to see a patient has visited their GP recently.”
Jill Wetherall, service manager of MASH, added: “The shared care record gives a holistic view of the partners involved in the adult’s care and wellbeing. Timely access to this information enables us to implement an immediate protection plan with the professionals involved, to promote the adult’s safety. The South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme champions excellent partnership working, which enhances safeguarding. Improved communication leads to better outcomes for the adults we serve.”
In a survey of City Council staff who had used the platform, the highest ranked benefits were improved access to information, improved care and safety and an increased efficiency in daily tasks.
The YHCR allows for information recorded about someone’s health and care such as illnesses, treatments and hospital admissions to be accessed by different people who are involved in their care. Currently, different hospitals, GPs and other health and care workers record separate pieces of information, which are not always shared. This can cause care and treatment delays, with organisations having to forward important facts by phone, email or paper. Shared care records enable the most up-to-date information to be available at any time they are needed.
The YHCR is being rolled out via the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record (SYSCR) programme, part of the national Connecting Care Records initiative. Currently, there are 13 local NHS organisations and local authorities involved in advancing the programme in South Yorkshire, across the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield areas.
Katie Dowson, SYSCR programme director, said: “The YHCR is making information available at the touch of a button to health and care professionals who are providing direct care for an individual. Professionals can then make better-informed decisions that will improve outcomes for those receiving care.
“We are very pleased as a programme team to see this landmark moment achieved in Sheffield City Council. We would also like to thank everyone involved in the City Council who has been working with us to implement the YHCR.”
For further information, please visit the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme webpage: https://syics.co.uk/digital_innovations/shared-care-record
To contact the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme team, please email:
The City of Doncaster Council (CDC) is implementing a regional shared care record platform, helping join up information from across local authorities and NHS organisations across South Yorkshire.
The council is rolling-out access to the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR) among its colleagues in adult social care from this month (April 2025) onwards.
The YHCR brings together people’s separate records into a structured, easy-to-read format. This gives health and care professionals directly involved in an individual’s care a more complete view of the care and treatment that an individual has received across all services. The new IT 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.
The YHCR is replacing use of the Integrated Doncaster Care Record (iDCR) in the council as part of a programme converging shared care record platforms across the region.
Katie Dowson, programme director of the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme, which is delivering the YHCR, said: “Doncaster has benefited for a number of years from the provision of the Integrated Doncaster Care Record, with real impacts made in improving care, such as faster assessments, less duplication and reduction in missed visits. With recent advances being made in delivering the YHCR, we are now at the stage as a system where it no longer makes sense to run multiple shared care records. While each shared care record has its own heritage, we risk creating complexity, a potential for duplication and leading to a varied experience.
“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.
“We must also highlight the fantastic work that has been carried out within City of Doncaster Council who have resourced and prioritised this work, achieving implementation in rapid time. As information within the YHCR grows, care staff will have access to more data than they have ever had before and which will be particularly helpful where care homes are on boundary lines, for example if it is a Doncaster care home but linked to a Rotherham GP practice.”
The YHCR allows for information recorded about someone’s health and care such as illnesses, treatments and hospital admissions to be accessed by different people who are involved in their care. Currently, different hospitals, GPs and other health and care workers record separate pieces of information, which are not always shared. This can cause care and treatment delays, with organisations having to forward important facts by phone, email or paper. Shared care records enable the most up-to-date information to be available at any time they are needed.
City of Doncaster Council is one of 13 partner organisations including local authorities and local NHS services involved in advancing the programme in South Yorkshire. In March 2025, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust went live with the YHCR, and Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust and South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust both have everything technically in place to soon give their health care professionals access to view the YHCR.
For further information, please visit the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme webpage: https://syics.co.uk/digital_innovations/shared-care-record
To contact the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme team, please email: syicb.scr@nhs.net.
About shared care records
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. A total of 13 local NHS organisations and local authorities are involved in advancing the programme in South Yorkshire, across the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield areas.
Here, we take a closer look at the work that has been advanced within Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (BMBC). Barnsley Council was the first council ever to win both the LGC Council of the Year and the MJ Local Authority of the Year awards in the same year (2023) and their ‘can-do’ attitude has once again been evident in implementing this programme.
What has taken place to date?
The Yorkshire and Humber Care Record has been made accessible to staff within a number of teams at Barnsley Council. These include:
- Reablement Team
- Hospital Discharge Team
- Initial Response Team
- Emergency Duty Team (out-of-hours care)
- Preparing for Adulthood Team.
As at mid-March 2024, a total of 76 members of staff had been given initial instructions in using the platform, with excellent support from project managers within the council, backed by representatives of the SYSCR programme team. This was followed by four launch events, two in-person and two online. The council has been proactive in its communications about the shared care record, helping improve awareness and understanding, implementing a range of activities such as the induction sessions and ‘walking the floor’ to engage and promote the YHCR with staff. The council has welcomed the introduction of the shared care record and is already beginning to realise benefits from its adoption.
What has worked well?
“The staff within the various teams have really engaged with the programme and are always looking to ask questions and improve their understanding. The project team at the council have been very supportive of their colleagues, either answering questions in Teams chats or by walking the floor and providing advice at people’s desks to help address any concerns and improve their confidence in using the platform.”
Rizah Al-Jiboury, SYSCR programme team
“I have found the shared care record very useful for identifying GP surgeries, recent diagnosis for health and welfare, and it has enabled me to see other services’ input with individuals to help build my initial screening and identify pathways for support or advice. It also provides us with relevant information of professionals’ discussions with service users for mental health, welfare checks, vulnerable adults and domestic violence and abuse records.”
Sarah Ellis, Assistant Social Care Practitioner, Initial Response Team, Barnsley Council
What have been some of the early benefits?
Scenario one
The Preparing for Adulthood team used the shared care record to identify a young person from their name and date of birth and confirm their record of diagnoses. This provided the team with more information about the person and saved them time making calls to NHS services or family members to source the details. Without being able to access the shared care record, they might have had to complete their work having made assumptions about the person.
Scenario two
A safeguarding concern was raised to the Initial Response Team (IRT) by contacts at the Department for Work and Pensions as an individual had not presented to claim their benefits. The IRT was able to review records from Bradford Hospital (as the YHCR contains health and care record information from across the whole of Yorkshire and the Humber) and they sadly discovered that the person had passed away in hospital. Without being able to access the shared care record, the team would have spent time trying to contact the person or their grieving family to enquire about the safety and wellbeing of their deceased family member. The IRT was able to close the referral in a timely and appropriate manner.
Learning for partner organisations?
In addition to the general support provided by the council and the sense of momentum gained in getting colleagues interested and using the platform, the council has established a number of ‘shared care record champions’. These champions include service leads who take a particular interest in the YHCR and help engage others, widening the roll-out of the programme.
Further information
For further information, please visit the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme webpage: https://syics.co.uk/digital_innovations/shared-care-record
To contact the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme team, please email: syicb.scr@nhs.net.
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: