What does the future hold for digitising social care

Over the last few years the adult social care sector in England has made a huge leap forward in its use of technology to support people’s care. We have moved from only half of people who receive care in England having a digital social care record (DSCR) to a place where we expect that figure to reach over 90%  by March 2025. Tens of thousands of people are now being supported by care technologies. And we have made significant progress on building up evidence about which technologies make a difference so that care providers and commissioners know where to prioritise investment.  

Progress beyond the headlines 

Looking beyond the headlines the progress has been equally impressive. Suppliers of DSCR have been working hard to ensure that their solutions meet key quality, safety and data standards. Standards may not sound that exciting but they are important. They ensure that the systems care providers use are safe and secure; that they can share information with the NHS; and that they do so in a consistent way that means that you can be more confident in the information that’s captured in the care record. 

All this work means the social care sector is well positioned to capitalise on the opportunities that further digitisation can deliver. This period of rapid digital transformation means that the sector has been able to skip a generation of outdated technologies and now has the chance to go further and faster than our colleagues in the NHS who continue to grapple with legacy systems. I believe that the adult social care sector can provide a blueprint for what technology enabled care could look like. 

Future ambitions for the digital transformation of adult social care 

The next few years will continue to be a time of opportunity. As we move on from our initial work putting the digital foundations in place we need to ensure that we  maintain momentum, doing what we can to support the sector to capitalise on the opportunities this has created. 

While I can’t provide any confirmed plans until we know the outcome of the October budget and  government spending review, I want to share some of our ambitions. These include: 

• Ensuring that people have access to more information about the care support they are entitled to, what care technologies are available to them and how these could be used to support care. This work will include collating existing evidence on different care technologies and sharing it with  commissioners and customers. We would like to provide more information to people who are not yet receiving social care but who may benefit from technology that helps them to live independently. Working with policy makers and local systems to reduce the barriers to care technologies being commissioned as part of a package of care, so that  they are embedded in a systematic way and looking at how different delivery models can support small and large providers. In parallel with this we want to build on the work we have started  with regulators to ensure that digitisation is built into good practice guidance and is something that customers look for when deciding which care provider to use. 
• Extending the assurance model for DSCRs to support additional types of care technology. The approach will be proportionate to the technology but will help to give providers, commissioners and private customers confidence that the technology meets a minimum set of core standards on areas such as data and cyber security. We would also like to  explore the potential for  creating a kitemark for assured suppliers that customers can look for when purchasing a DSCR solution. 
• Helping the sector get the best out of their DSCRs so that they’re fully embedded into how care is managed and delivered. We know that GP connect is already proving to be an invaluable tool for the nearly 2000 CQC registered providers who access it via their DSCR. It allows them to   access  the most recent interactions between a  person they care for and their GP, cutting the amount of time spent following up with a local practice. The ability to offer GP connect access is a requirement for all suppliers  if they wish to continue to be on our assured solutions list.  
• Exploring how we can use  DSCRs to support different models for commissioning care – for example by making it easier to monitor and invoice for outcomes or by tracking delegated healthcare tasks that are being delivered by the sector 
• Creating a Social Care Interoperability Platform that is used to share information between health and social care – for example when someone is admitted or discharged from hospital. This will help make sure providers have the information they need and hopefully improve the quality of that data but will also help ensure that interoperability does not drive-up costs. 
• Collating social care data centrally, in an appropriately anonymised/ pseudonymised way and where there are consents to do so, so that it can be linked with the NHS and shared for operational planning purposes, used by researchers and innovators, act as a training and deployment platform for Artificial Intelligence that can send prompts directly to care workers and last but not least support, and in some instances replace, central reporting requirements that create a burden for providers. 

Building on digital foundations and embracing the future 

Some of these ambitions may not sound radical; they may also sound far removed from care on the ground. But by focusing  on putting infrastructure and frameworks in place at a national level and removing barriers we can create the conditions to  help local care providers, Local Authorities and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to innovate and modernise. And more importantly, provide better support for people who receive care and their families. 

The next few years will be critical for social care. We can embrace the future and embed technology and digital tools in how care is provided, unlocking new ways to care for and support people. Or we can follow the path of the NHS where “the last decade was a missed opportunity to prepare the NHS for the future”.