New funding to improve sharing of data between health and social care services

NHS Digital has announced new funding to enable “digitising the flow of information between adult social care and health services with the aim of increasing the quality and efficiency of care”.

The first installment of £1.1 million is for ‘demonstrator areas’ to develop digital products and services able to transfer information from clinical into adult social care settings. The second installment of £233,000 is for projects investigating what information is currently flowing from adult social care into health systems and what more is required to enhance joined up care. The third installment of £250,000 is for local authorities and research organisations to explore the use of predictive analytics “to prevent or predict long-term social care need, as well as assess the ethical implications of such practice”.

Lyn Romeo, chief social worker for adults at the Department for Health and Social Care said: “Timely access to accurate information is essential to supporting the efficient co-ordination of person-centered care. This includes for example what medication people are taking, what allergies people might suffer from and any personal preferences people have in how they are looked after. This can all be delivered so much more quickly and accurately by the digital transfer of records through secure channels, or by more intelligent use of data, whilst maintaining privacy, respecting confidentiality and upholding people’s rights.”

James Palmer, programme lead for the Social Care Programme at NHS Digital said: “These demonstrators will be chosen on the basis that their work could be replicated easily to deliver benefits quickly for the system and pave the way for a truly integrated future. We know that this is an area fraught with ethical considerations that have not yet been clearly defined or agreed. Through the provision of this funding, we want to begin to understand both how predictive analytics could and should be used in the provision of social care.”