The following questions and answers have been developed through our engagement with adult social care partners and stakeholders.
For further information please contact england.dscr.enquiries@nhs.net.
FAQs
The full name is Adult Social Care Digital Social Care Record (DSCR): Minimum Operational Data Standard.
An information standard is defined in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 as “a document containing standards that relate to the processing of information”.
The MODS standard describes the data that is recorded and used by Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulated adult social care service providers using or creating a Digital Social Care Record (DSCR).
Visit the Adult Social Care Record Minimum Operational Data Standard to find out more.
Ensuring all organisations speak the same language by adopting information standards across the sector will help improve quality and safety of care by more effectively sharing data across health and adult social care.
Our ambition is to improve the quality and consistency of information that health and adult social care providers use and record about a person receiving care in England.
Adopting data standards will ensure care packages can be set up, the information recorded and shared in a standard way, faster, more efficiently and in close collaboration with partner organisations in the NHS and the community. It will also help to reduce the burden on care providers, freeing up precious time and resources to deliver care.
The Digitising Social Care programme has engaged with many partners and stakeholders across the adult social care sector to help inform the new standards. The experience and expertise of care providers has and will continue to be vital to ensuring the standards are practical, meaningful and continue to evolve in practice.
Recording information consistently about a person receiving adult social care will improve the quality and safety of care. It will help to provide a record of a person covering their needs and preferences that can be shared and understood across organisations, in addition to where integrated care services are required or when there is a transfer of care to another setting.
The MODS will not change the way care providers access their existing systems and information.
The DSCR MODS Information Standard will be mandatory for those suppliers now on, and intending to remain on, the Assured Solution list (ASL). Our ambition is that all adult social care providers will adopt the new Information Standard across England in order to adopt and maintain Digital Social Care Records.
The MODS sets out what essential information is needed for an adult social care record. All CQC-registered care providers are already assessed against CQC Regulation 17 – Good Governance and must complete the Data Security Protection Toolkit (DSPT) at least once a year in order to have access to NHS patient data and systems such as GP Connect or shared care records.
Having the DSPT in place underpins the delivery of safe, quality care, making information available at the right time to the right people to improve care.
The MODS does not change the care provider’s current responsibility to keep people’s personal information safe, protecting it from loss, inappropriate access or changes, whether it is stored on paper or digitally.
Accurate and timely information about a person being cared for is essential for high quality and effective care services.
Our goal is to ensure that appropriate health and adult social care information is accessible to those with a legitimate right to access it at the point of need, whilst ensuring that data collections are proportionate and minimise the burden on those providing the data. Standardised terminology and Information Standard products for adult social care systems are crucial to achieving this goal.
The Digitising Social Care Programme (DiSC) is developing a range of solutions to minimise burden on providers. This includes funding an ambitious programme of digitisation for adult social care through Integrated Care Systems – spending almost £50m last year, and a further £100m over the next two years.
The Care Quality Commission has recognised the benefit of standardised information and the need for Digital Social Care Records. DSCRs are integral to the digitisation of the sector and will improve service delivery on the ground. They enable information to be shared securely and in real-time with authorised individuals in care teams, saving save time spent on administrative tasks (up to 20 minutes per care worker per shift) and helping to deliver better, more personalised care.