Policy and Funding
In June 2022, the Government published an ambitious plan for digital health and social care and the Data Saves Lives strategy. The two publications mark a milestone in the digital transformation of the sector and its importance has been backed with a £25m investment for 22/23 to scale up digitisation across health and social care. The latest publications follow on from a recent series from December 2021, including People at the heart of care and the integration white paper: Health and social care integration: joining up care for people, places and populations.
The Digital Health and Care Plan sets out the future vision of health and social care, looking forward as far as 2028, with high-level delivery plans up to 2025. The delivery plans provide more detail on actions and achievements of the commitments from the aforementioned strategies. For providers, ICS’s will be integral to the delivery of the £150 million for social care digital transformation, titled the Digitising Social Care Fund. ICS regions were invited to apply for funds, backed with a delivery plan, on how they would support the pre-set ambitions:
- 80% of CQC registered providers to have digital social care records that can connect to a shared care record by March 2024 (the systems will be identified through the Assured Supplier List)
- 20% of care home residents who are identified as at high risk of falls are protected by sensor-based falls prevention and detection technologies by March 2024.
- An additional £25m to scale up the use of digital social care records, alongside other promising evidence-based technologies such as falls prevention technology.
- deliver fibre broadband upgrades to at least 1,000 care homes currently dependent on poor connections (March 2024).
ICSs that have submitted approved plans have had them published on Digital Social Care’s dedicated Digitising Social Care Fund page and have been incorporated into our ICS Map. The plans work on an application/expression of interest process meaning that Care Providers will have to make contact to access the funds. Additional, regions will be offering engagement events and sharing information but these are not stored centrally so require access to existing communication channels with your region. On our map you will find the link to the plans’ information alongside contact information to apply for funding.
“I welcome the focus the government has on supporting digital transformation across the social care sector. There are many opportunities that digital can offer. This plan brings together a range of initiatives, setting out a pathway that talks ambitiously of a future where digital supports people and communities to live the lives they want. It is vital that this programme of change continues to listen, adapt and work with the care sector so that the opportunities it presents are available for all.”
Professor Vic Rayner OBE
Adult Social Care Terminology
NHS Transformation Directorate have now published the Digital Social Care Data Catalogue alpha. This programme is focussed on developing a suite of adult social care terminology products that will enable local authorities, adult social care providers, and people and their families to share information quickly, easily and safely. The Catalogue will become a national “home” for adult social care data standards, where new and existing standards can be consolidated and published and where the community can discover and contribute to data best practice
Minimum Operational Data Set
The NHS Transformation Directorate are developing the Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) Minimum Operational Data Set (MODS). This data set is a list of what information should be required in a Digital Social Care Record/Electronic Care Plan. The primary objective of the MODS is to ensure consistent baseline data is collected across the adult social care sector. The dataset should reflect regulatory requirements, facilitate increased capability for information sharing between health and adult social care systems and be the start of aligning the core information needed to deliver improved care.
The draft of the MODS spreadsheet can be found on the Digital Social Care Data Catalogue website under the ‘assets’ tab.
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