Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

The code assigned by Royal Mail to identify postal delivery areas across the United Kingdom.

The postcode of the person’s normal place of residence should be recorded alongside all event rows. The postcode will be used to assist with identifying missing NHS numbers and to derive geographical fields to support analysis.
Where someone lives in a residential or nursing home, the postcode of the residential/nursing home should be used.

The same should also apply to clients who move to an out-of-area residential home; the postcode of the out-of-area residential/nursing home should be recorded. In these circumstances, the activity should be reported by the local authority where the person is ordinarily resident i.e. where the local authority holds responsibility for the person in an out of area placement.

People who are staying in care homes temporarily should not use the postcode of the care home, as this has not yet become their normal place of residence. For unpaid carers, it is recognised that caring roles can be across local authority borders, so as with above, the postcode of the carer’s normal place of residence should be recorded.

The following values should be used for the given situations:
• ZZ99 3VZ - no fixed abode
• ZZ99 3CZ - address known but no postcode recorded
• Unknown - address not known

Data type: Alpha-numeric (Postcode Outward Code_Postcode Inward Code e.g. XX3 4YY) or Unknown