Presentation on using technology to support the organisation and delivery of care to improve outcomes. Presented on 2 May 2014 by Charlotte Buckley Deputy Director, People, Communities and Local Government at the Department of Health at the Local-Central Government Discovery Day on the Impact of the Care Bill hosted by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

1. Local
Digital
Campaign
Social Care
Informatics: An
Introduction
#LocalDigital
@LocalDigitalGov
Charlotte Buckley, Deputy Director, People,
Communities and Local Government, Department of
Health

2. Adult Social Care Informatics
Charlotte Buckley
Deputy Director
People Communities and Local Government

3. What is our goal?
• In the future, we want to see much more joint working across health and social
care, with services wrapped around the user and the citizen at the very heart of
the system.
– People only need to tell their story once and there are smooth transitions
– There is safer, higher quality care
– People have access to information, and have more control over their health
and care
• We also want technology to be an enabler to wider reforms, helping local health
and care systems:
– Deliver higher quality
– Manage demand
– Support efficiencies
– Encourage innovation and new models of delivery
• Our ambitions are not about introducing more technology for technologies sake
but about improving the organisation and delivery of care to improve outcomes.

4. Care and support is undergoing a transformation –
and informatics needs to enable change, not be a
barrier
• Care Bill – delivering the most significant change in the legal framework, funding
and provision of adult social care for over 50 years
• Integration – Better Care Fund and Pioneers accelerating joint working and new
models of care.
• Personalisation – increasingly putting the citizen at the heart of the system, in
control of their care and support
• Quality – seeking continuous improvement in the quality and experience of care
• Prevention – exploring ways to reconfigure services to manage increasing demand
better
Plus…..
• Resources – Local government facing challenging settlement, so we need to seek
ways to drive innovation to better support staff and reduce burden

5. Opportunities to transform care services
through technology potentially as great as in
health…
Anecdotal evidence
suggest social
workers may spend
less than 20% of their
time with service
users
Nurses manually
filling in “80 page
Continuing Care
forms” and then
faxing to social care
Websites of
varying quality,
and little
consistent,
quality advice
to those
looking for
care and
support
services
Multidisciplinary teams struggling to organise
case work meetings as diaries can not be
shared and there is no common directory of
contacts
Practical problems we
have heard….
Local authority staff
having three e-mail
addresses…

6. Where are we now? Where do we want to be?
• Services designed with the provider/
commissioner in mind, not the end-
user
• Paper based processes, with
professionals having to spend time
processing information rather than
supporting people
• Silo-ed working, with often little
information and intelligence shared
between professionals or systems
• Traditional market model, with small
number of suppliers focusing on
council back office systems
• The user at the heart of the system,
with the same level of customer
service/ interaction as in other areas
of life
• ASC professionals and providers
embracing technology as a key part
of getting the job done and reducing
burden
• A fully joined up information
ecosystem within health and care,
and ideally other critical agencies
(e.g. providers and VCS).
• Effective prediction (through
analytics) and prevention (pre-
emptive interventions)
• Dynamic market, open to innovation

7. Care Bill – a phased approach
• Changes for 2015
– Local authorities will need to upgrade back office systems to meet requirements of the Care Bill in
time for implementation in 2015
– Councils also need to consider their arrangements for meeting their new responsibilities for
providing information and advice as set out in the Bill.
– Local authorities may also want to start thinking about wider changes in information systems to
support reforms, such as consideration of the case for online assessment for self-funders.
• Changes for 2016
– Further work is now underway, following the closing of the consultation, on the requirements for
funding reform. Critical informatics questions include:
• Changes to back office systems to ‘meter’ care
• Online care accounts and access to records for individuals?
• Alongside technical changes, work is also underway to explore:
– Market development & commercial approach
– Economic case for technology in social care

8. Care Bill – our plans
• Published guidance for local authorities and suppliers in January this year to start
engagement
• For 2015: working with ADASS IMG to provide further updates to the sector on
the requirements of the Care Bill when these are ready
– Engagement planned with suppliers and councils on draft regulations and
guidance once these are published for consultation
• Scoping the work programme for 2016…
– Exploring digital opportunities with this digital discovery day
– Working with sector organisations to engage on how to support more wide
scale changes to informatics systems for 2016 onwards, including
development of standards
– Ensuring linkages with wider integration agenda and working with Pioneers to
identify and tackle barriers and promote opportunities