When you reach the Select organisations step in the referral flow, the system ranks eligible organisations based on the criteria you’ve entered, so that the best fit matches appear first in long lists.
More specifically…
The list prioritises organisations that most closely match the issue, sending organisation, gender, local authority, and age for the client. Organisations that say “we accept everyone/anywhere/any sender” remain eligible but appear lower because they are less specific matches.
Note: Only organisations that are active, accepting referrals, and have capacity are considered at all.
How scoring works (at a glance)
For each eligible organisation, the system checks their criteria and adjusts the matching score. Specific matches rank higher; less specific, more generalised organisations are considered but rank lower.
Issue fit
- Specialises in the selected issue → higher score.
- Accepts all issues → eligible, lower score.
Sender relationship (accepted organisations)
- Explicitly accepts referrals from your sending organisation → higher score.
- Accepts referrals from any sender → eligible, lower score.
Gender
- Explicitly supports the client’s gender → higher score.
- Accepts all genders → eligible, lower score.
Local authority coverage
- Covers the client’s residing local authority → higher score.
- Accepts all local authorities → eligible, lower score.
Age range
- Specifies an age range that includes the client’s age → higher score.
- Accepts all ages → eligible, lower score.
The final ordering reflects the combined score across all five criteria.
What this means for you
- Pick from the top first: those organisations are the closest fit for the client.
- Broad‑accepting organisations are still valid choices, just positioned lower to prioritise specialised options.
- The exact numeric scores aren’t shown; you use the ordering as guidance.
- If multiple organisations match equally well, they may appear adjacent in the list.
- Configuration of criteria is covered separately in Settings → Criteria (admin only).