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111 Referral Standard: Final Report

3.5 Development and Consultation Approach

The development and consultation approach followed the proven and trusted PRSB methodology, although the work was spread over several years and phases (commissions).

Research and evidence gathering, initial shaping of the information requirements and developing of those information requirements through a multi-disciplinary workshop was conducted in the 2018 requirements work.

The 2021 discovery work validated the 2018 work and concluded it could apply to 111 services through a call handler or 111 online as well as through a clinical assessment service.

The 2022 (Phase 3) work approach included:

  • Wide consultation through a survey for users of services, senders of referrals and receivers of 111 referrals to gain consensus and support for the standard and test it across the many different destination communities including with IT providers and system suppliers. This was followed up with specific engagement with areas with lower numbers of survey responses (dentistry, optometry, mental health and community pharmacy) to verify the draft 111 referral standard was suitable for those areas.
  • Verifying that 999 services could provide the essential information of a 111 referral and therefore be included into scope of the standard.
  • Engagement with GPs through interviews and focus groups to define the general practice PEM.
  • Further work delayed to May/June 2022 to gather and analyse feedback from the 111 to ED pilots and update the standard as appropriate.

Page last updated: 06 January 2026