ALISS programme round up 2023

ALISS has continued to increase the availability and accessibility of information about community assets, services and resources.

As of 12 December 2023, ALISS has 5,444 services listed, 5,676 account holders registered, and 1,314 organisations claimed by a representative of that organisation. The number of people searching on the ALISS Programme’s own www.aliss.org website averages 10,000 per month, although ALISS data can also be accessed through a variety of other systems and platforms beyond the ALISS website itself (e.g. NHS Inform).

This year, the ALISS Programme has delivered a range of developments to the technical functionality and features of the ALISS system through the “Democratising Access to Community Services” (DACS) project funded by UKRI / Innovate UK. The DACS Project has taken a human centred design approach and has been informed by insights and feedback gathered from a wide range of ALISS users and stakeholders during research and engagement activity over recent years, as well as further user research and testing carried out during the project itself

Development has included changes to the ALISS claims model, increasing the options and providing more flexibility for groups, organisations and services who wish to take control and responsibility for managing their own information through ALISS. It also includes improvements to the ALISS data input process, enabling people who are adding information to now include details about particular communities that their services or activities aim to support, and about any available accessibility features that might enable people to access them. Further developments in relation to data governance, including automatic update reminders and a new information review process are also underway and are due to go live early in 2024.

As well as improving the functionality and user experience of the ALISS system itself, the DACS Project has also involved working with project partners to increase the ways that people can access ALISS data. This has included working with TL Tech to make ALISS available through voice activation on Amazon’s Alexa platform by developing the ‘My Scottish Community’ Alexa skill / app, and working with the Access Group to integrate ALISS data within the Access Elemental Social Prescribing software.

In addition to the DACS Project, general ALISS programme engagement activity has continued, delivering a range of in person and online sessions to raise awareness, and support the use of ALISS across the country. The ALISS team continue to work with partners who wish to use the www.aliss.org website as a signposting tool or directory, as well as those who wish to display ALISS data through their own front-end platforms.

End of page.