This week I’ve had a couple of queries from developers who are reading or importing services from ORUK feeds on how to use taxonomies.
We’d normally expect each service record to have at least one “service type” from an open taxonomy such as the LGA’s services list. Service finders may group or allow filtering of services by service type.
If you want to target services at people with particular circumstances (e.g. asylum seeker) or with particular needs (e.g. health advice), you can use associations (aka “mappings”) between service types and needs/circumstances. The LGA publishes suggested mappings as downloadable files or data that can be queried via its API.
Some suppliers (like Placecube) use these mappings to add circumstance and need taxonomy terms to each service in their directories. Others look to service finder developers to implement such mappings themselves using the LGA’s suggested mappings or ones they define.
We’re talking with Doc&Tee about how to make the process easier for them to configure in their service finder tools.