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About MODS

The Minimum Operational Data Standards programme — what it is, who it's for, and how to use this site.

What MODS is

MODS (Minimum Operational Data Standards) is a set of operational data standards for social care in Wales, commissioned by Social Care Wales and developed in partnership with BetterGov.

It describes — for each statutory social care process — the minimum set of information that must be captured, how it should be structured, which code sets apply, and how it maps to national interoperability standards (FHIR R4, SNOMED CT UK).

MODS is operational: it is a day-to-day working standard for practitioners, case management suppliers, and local authorities. It is minimum: it defines the floor, not the ceiling — individual authorities remain free to capture additional fields for local purposes.

Why it matters

  • Consistent data across 22 local authorities — so Welsh Government, the NHS, and regulators can build an accurate picture of demand, outcomes, and unmet need.
  • Interoperability with health — shared identifiers, shared value sets and FHIR mappings make transfer of care, discharge, and safeguarding referrals frictionless.
  • Bilingual by design — Welsh and English value sets are treated as first-class, not translations-on-top.
  • Built on Welsh legislation — every profile is anchored to a specific Part or section of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014.

How to use this site

  1. Browse the catalogue to see the 10 published use-case profiles, ~325 data elements, and their FHIR mappings.
  2. Open a use-case profile to see which data elements apply at each stage of the social care journey.
  3. Review the lookup tables for the controlled value sets used across the catalogue.
  4. Explore FHIR mappings to understand how MODS aligns with HL7 FHIR resources used by NHS Wales.

Programme status

10 of the 12 priority use cases are published in draft (status: Stable). UC-011 (Technology Enabled Care) and UC-012 (Outsourced Assessment Service) are in scope but under development.

Lookup tables such as CYP Closure Reasons are published separately and referenced across use cases.

Corrections and feedback welcome — contact Social Care Wales via socialcare.wales.