[Welcome Shelley Heckman to the blog, posting from iStandUK (original post here) about the new chapter of Open Referral UK.]
As of April 1, 2026, Open Referral UK (ORUK) began an exciting new chapter under the stewardship of iStandUK. This transition marks not only a new organisational home, but also a meaningful moment to pause, reflect, and introduce the team who will be supporting and guiding ORUK’s next phase of work.
This change follows a carefully planned transition that began in November 2025. Responsibility for ORUK has now fully moved to iStandUK, an organisation hosted by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council in Greater Manchester, England. Over recent months, iStandUK has worked closely with the UK Government’s Local Digital program (within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) and with digital consultancy TPX Impact to ensure a smooth handover, preserving continuity and safeguarding ORUK’s mission.
With the transition complete, we are pleased to introduce the new team responsible for delivering ORUK day‑to‑day under iStandUK:
- Paul Davidson, ORUK Product Owner
- Shelley Heckman, ORUK Programme Manager
- Nicholas Oughtibridge, ORUK Standards Specialist
- Craig Wilkins, ORUK Operations Manager
- Russell Bloore, ORUK Technical Specialist
- Michelle Kern, ORUK Partnership Office Manager
- Mevish Khalid, Comms & Social Media Manager
- Mike Thacker, Technical & Standards Advisor
With this new team in place, ORUK is entering a phase focused on delivery, adoption, and impact. In its early years, ORUK focused on adapting the standard itself to suit the UK context – building the tools and infrastructure needed to support it. Now, the priority shifts toward helping organisations put the ORUK standard into practice, turning the framework into real‑world improvements in how service information is created, shared, and maintained.
This is where iStandUK brings deep experience. The organisation has a strong track record of developing data standards for local public services and, critically, supporting their implementation across government, nonprofit, and community partners. Through initiatives like SAVVI (Scalable Approach to Vulnerability via Interoperability), iStandUK has demonstrated how robust, well‑governed data standards can drive practical improvements and enable cross‑sector collaboration.
Over the coming months, ORUK will focus on strengthening the technical stability of the newly transitioned standard and preparing for a full incubation period under iStandUK. This groundwork ensures the foundation is strong before broader outreach begins later this year.
From that point, the ORUK team will prioritise:
- Bringing ORUK to a wider range of organisations and sectors
- Building strong governance
- Supporting implementation in practice
- Accelerating adoption
- Strengthening interoperability across services and systems
- Growing community engagement and deepening sector relationships
As ORUK enters this next phase, the team is also looking forward to working even more closely with the Open Referral International community. The global OR network has long been a source of shared learning, innovation, and mutual support. ORUK is committed to contributing to that international collaboration – learning from colleagues around the world, sharing UK experience, and strengthening alignment wherever it benefits communities and service providers. This global perspective is essential as we work together to advance open, standards‑based service information ecosystems that can improve outcomes for people everywhere.
Together, the team will help ORUK move from strong foundations to widespread adoption, ensuring high‑quality, consistent, standards‑based service information becomes normal practice across the UK. This next phase is about turning ORUK’s potential into everyday impact, and the team is ready to lead that journey.
We look forward to sharing updates, introducing the team in more detail, and working closely with partners old and new, both in the UK and across the global Open Referral community.
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