In June 2018, twelve councils, chosen by NHS Digital, were awarded £20,000 each to explore how digital technologies could improve social care. Nine of those will now share £700,000 to design and implement their solution.

The money, which is part of the Social Care Digital Innovation Programme, will go towards the projects which include an app for social care providers, enabling them to collate important employment information to improve the care worker recruitment process and online financial self-assessment and benefits checker tools.

The nine successful councils include:

• Bracknell Forest Council
• London Borough Havering
• Isle of Wight Council
• Lincolnshire County Council
• Nottingham City Council
• Shropshire Council
• Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
• Sunderland City Council
• Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

James Palmer, programme lead for the Social Care Programme at NHS Digital, said: “The successful projects all showed great promise during their discovery phase, looking at a wide range of areas from data visualisations and online financial assessment tools to wearable tech and exoskeleton devices.

“These are some really exciting proposals and I am looking forward to seeing the outcomes. We will be sharing learning from the projects, with a view to these blueprints supporting other social care providers looking to innovate in the same area.”

The programme is commissioned by NHS Digital and is managed by the Local Government Association (LGA).

Councils are tasked with creating digital pilots that will advance front-line practice, improving systems and enabling integration across adult social care.

Kate Allsop, executive mayor of Mansfield and digital lead on the LGA’s Community and Wellbeing Board, said: “These important projects will improve people’s experience of care and support as part of efforts to support people’s wellbeing. All of this year’s cohort have shown true innovation which made it extremely difficult to decide who to fund for implementation.

“The discovery phase has enabled a detailed study of user needs to determine the scope of some really interesting projects. These projects will add real value to the sector and will push the boundaries of digital innovation for social care across the country.”

Source: DigitalHealth