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Embracing Digital Transformation in Social Care: Balancing Innovation with Human Connection

All care providers in the UK should be on a journey of digitisation. As a sector we are expected to embrace digital tools to help improve care outcomes. But is digitisation the answer? Will the array of digital tools available help or hinder the humanistic nature of social care? Can we harness the likes of Chat GPT to write care plans whilst keeping our integrity?

As we start to rummage for our coats and boots as Autumn draws in, approximately 80% of the care providers in England have already started their digital journey. That could mean those providers are just starting to get their organisation used to digital care planning software, or they have integrated a host of digital solutions, linked to GP connect and sharing care records across health and social care. If your care provision is part of the 20%, yet to create a process of digital care records, then our strong recommendation would be to act now. There is still funding available through the assured suppliers list, but only until March 2025. There will soon come a time when a CQC rating of Good or Outstanding will be unobtainable without digital care records. Speak to your peers now to find out what digital solutions are working for them and the lessons learnt from implementing new systems.

Slide to show the various challenges faced by care providers in the UK, ranging through inspection ratings, meds errors, maintenance of buildings and equipment, mental wellbeing, data protection, workforce and retention, falls awareness, and loneliness.
Working in social care is not easy when you are faced with numerous challenges on a daily basis.
What Can Digital Solutions Do for the Care Sector?

The main driver behind deploying digital solutions should be the wellbeing of the individuals within the sector and how the tools improve and facilitate human interactions. If you work in care, the human interaction, and the wellbeing of those around you is the reason for getting out of bed in the morning.

The demand for auditing care delivery is relentless with a queue of external agencies that require certain levels of access to that audit. Care providers are expected to record everything that happens within care and everything that is in place to mitigate risk and package that information up for examination by the inspectorate, local authority, insurance companies, medical professionals, and many others. Each agency wants similar information from different perspectives.

There are lots of digital tools in the marketplace, but the strong ones help overcome the many challenges faced by the sector in an effective, efficient way. Great software that will simultaneously help with compliance, reducing risk, and operational excellence opposed to software that reduces one challenge in isolation. Person Centred Software (PCS), the marketing leader for digital care plans, is currently recording more than 9.5 million care notes daily. It is estimated that on average 20 to 30 manual care notes could be produced manually by a carer on any given day. PCS are currently reporting 60 to 70 notes logged per day across their connected care platforms, offering a more detailed picture of an individual’s care. Not only can the right software reduce the burden, but a byproduct is a much greater oversight of the state of care. The ability to use the data to predict and forecast is immense. Predictions that could bring about improvements for an individual, an organisation at policy level or a much wider population.

The use of digital tools within care; good digital tools that have been matched to your organisational needs and implemented effectively, will give your staff team more time. The easing of time pressures on your staff will allow for greater focus on outcomes for people and enable improvements to the care delivery. Good software will also empower you to trial new processes within your organisation and receive instantaneous feedback on the level of success, giving you the relevant data to make effective decisions and removing guesswork.  

We should collectively invest in making improvements in care through combining technology with human skills, reduce risks and become more responsive.
What are the next steps?

It is logical that care providers across the country are at various stages of the digital evolution, you are constantly trying to balance resources with the need to reduce risk and drive the standards of care. There is plenty of support around. A good place to start would be Better Security Better Care from the Digital Care Hub. You may want to become familiar with the Minimum Operational Data Standard (MODS). Redcrier and the wider PCS team have a wealth of experience to help you choose the right digital tools for you and your care provision. Read our Connected Care page to find out the ways in which we can help.

The emphasis, as always, is on the care provider, but ultimately the sector should be held accountable for how they are innovating and moving things forwards for the betterment of individuals. We should collectively invest in making improvements in care through combining technology with human skills, reduce risks and become more responsive.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into in, move with it, and join the dance.” Alan Watts.

Contact us today to talk to us about how we take the next steps together.

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