In a world of rapidly developing technological advances, the need to stay up to speed is becoming increasingly apparent.

New, innovative technologies are taking the social care sector by storm and improving the quality of the care provided. This is not only achieved through assistive technologies like monitoring with wearables or fall detection but also through back-end systems. Using more streamlined rostering and HR management digital systems for example, allows care providers to free up valuable time usually spent completing paperwork, and direct their attention back to delivering invaluable care.

As exciting as it can be however, there remain several challenges to be addressed.

Regulation

Ahead of a nation-wide rollout of the new Single Assessment Framework from the CQC, the government is urging care providers to digitise their care services. Confirmed by the CQC themselves, the benefits of a good digital records system will enable wider spread access to patient data and care plans, improving the quality and individualisation of care provided. They have also outlined how it can enhance staff productivity, facilitate better quality monitoring of services, and improve both physical storage availability and security measures.

Stay ahead of the game and come along to Care Show London to learn how to cost-effectively digitise your care services and ensure you meet the new inspection requirements.

Featured Topic Session at Care Show London:

‘Cybersecurity: 10 things you wish you knew sooner’ with Geraint Thomas, Technology Transformation Partner at Guided Innovation

‘Meeting the call for New CQC evidence: a tech shopping list’ with Geraint Thomas, Technology Transformation Partner at Guided Innovation

Funding

Accessing money within the adult social care sector has always been a pain point. With expensive technologies only a contract away, it becomes increasingly important to learn how to access the funding available for digital transformation projects.

With £25 million provided to ICSs through the ‘Adult Social Care Digital Transformation Fund’, Digitising Social Care aims to ensure that 80% of CQC-registered providers have digital social care records (DSCR) by March 2024.

As of November 2023, more than 60% of providers now use DSCRs, of which 1,300 can access an online GP record for the people in their care. This demonstrates solid progress and hopefully continued funding will see this statistic rise.

Featured Topic Session at Care Show London:

‘Funding the future: unlocking government support for digital transformation initiatives’ with Katie Thorn, Project Lead at Digital Care Hub, Kerren Friend, NHS Transformation Directorate at Digitising Social Care and Jenna Collins, Programme Manager at Tech for Better Care Fund, the Health Foundation

Inclusion

As we all know, there is no point in buying mountains of recent technology if the training isn’t in place to use it correctly. The implementation of any new system to a social care environment is crucial.

The NHS Digital Academy is working to grow general digital literacy through a host of new programmes available to care professionals, which will continue for the next 3 years. For the 11 million people in the UK who lack basic internet-use skills, this will help to ensure that sufficient training is provided and exclusion through lack of confidence, knowledge, and understanding is reduced.  

This is not, however, the only challenge; basic infrastructure is also a requirement for the implementation of recent technology. More rural areas of the UK are known to have significantly slower upload and download speeds impacting their ability to access essential services online or share cross-sector records. Whilst recent reports have called for local governments to take a more active role in reducing these digital disparities, there remains a lack of provision for those less connected.

Featured Topic Session at Care Show London:

‘Cultural Transformation: the importance of a change-journey in technological implementation’ with Channel 3 Consulting and Phil Neilson, Head of Digital Transformation at City and County Healthcare Group

‘What do you mean no WIFI? How infrastructure contributes to digital exclusion’ with Palvi Dodhia, COO of Serene Care, Louis Holmes, Digital Policy Lead at Care England, and Dr Caroline Green, Early Careers Research Fellow from the University of Oxford

Digital inclusion: developing effective support practices that enable people with learning disabilities to access and use everyday technologies with Professor Jane Seale, Professor of Education at the Open University

The Future

As the CQC Single Assessment Framework continues to be rolled out across the country, it becomes increasingly clear that staying ahead of the digital game with recent technologies is more salient than ever.

The Technology Theatre at Care Show London 2024 will provide you with hours of free digital expertise to implement in your own businesses and improve your services. Come along to learn more and stay ahead of the game!