Making sense of things:
Why we are building a classification system for SDECs.

The technical term is a "taxonomy" but, no, it has nothing to do with tax. A taxonomy is a way of setting out how similar things relate to each other. They are ways of classifying or categorising things.

For example, we classify living things by setting animals apart from plants and, under the umbrella of "animals", setting birds apart from monkeys. Another example is a library, where you might find the fiction section set apart from the non-fiction section and, within the fiction section, you might find crime thrillers set apart from romance novels.

Some ways of classifying things are hierarchical, like the taxonomy of life. Other classification systems use 'facets', i.e. different ways of looking at something. We say more about these, below.

We described the kinds of classification in terms of how they help you to find things. But the real purpose of a classification system is to help see how similar things relate to each other, in an insightful way. When you look at things through a good-quality classification system, you see them in a whole new light. Eureka!

For example, classifying the parts of plants shows us that tomatoes are a fruit rather than a vegetable. This is despite supermarkets selling them in the vegetable aisle. And, when thinking about making dinner, classifying ingredients as salt, fat, acid, and heat empowers you to make substitutes and create new dishes.

So, how will a classification system for SDECs help? Well, we are developing a classification system for SDECs because we want to make sense of all the variety that we are seeing. At the moment, it's a bit messy when you look at all the ways that SDECs have been setup and run, across the country. It is hard for SDECs to reduce avoidable admissions when they don't know what is working and not working for similar SDECs. We need to know what differences make the difference between avoiding and not a avoiding admissions.