Am I right in saying (remembering) that HECS datafiles are in .dbf format? If so, transfer to, from and between the various file formats should not present too much of a problem, I would have thought.
And, in any case, as long as the original data is preserved, any "experimentation" shouldn't cause damage anyway. It's really just a matter of proceeding in a careful, thoughtful, manner!

Meanwhile, I can't help but wonder why "North Devon" isn't talking to "South Devon" about
their much lauded system!