‘Adult social care is vital to NHS reform - and we have tech to deliver it’
HealthTechAdult social care must sit at the heart of NHS reform – and the technology already exists to deliver it.
That’s the finding of a white paper launched by techUK’s Social Care Working Group at the trade association’s first CareTech conference.
In Why digital adult social care transformation is central to the future of the NHS, techUK sets out the principles that the industry is willing to commit to in order to drive this change.
It draws on real deployment evidence from across the sector, with case studies from organisations including Kyndi, Lilli and Medway Council, Aico and Selwood Housing, Archangel and Bield Housing and Care, Rethink Partners and the Royal Borough of Greenwich, The Access Group and Derbyshire County Council, CoolCare, Ally Cares, and System C and Suffolk County Council, alongside thought leadership from Civica and Tunstall.
The white paper argues that the NHS 10-Year Plan’s three shifts – hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention – all depend on what happens in the homes and neighbourhoods where adult social care already operates at scale.
The technologies needed to support that shift – predictive monitoring, interoperable records, AI-enabled decision support and digital telecare – are mature and already deployed, the paper says.
What is missing, it argues, is the coordination layer around them: aligned commissioning, consolidated data standards, joined-up assurance, stronger interoperability and shared accountability across health, care, government and industry.
The white paper argues that rather than waiting for longer-term reform and funding settlements, existing money should be redirected and pooled more effectively so prevention investment reaches the parts of the system where it delivers the greatest impact.
“There is now a groundswell of evidence that digital solutions can significantly benefit those who need social care, health and housing,” writes Sir David Pearson CBE, chair of TEC Quality, in the foreword.
“It is only through concerted action by government, national bodies, the NHS, those representing local government and social care, housing and health providers, along with the tech industry, that we will be able to implement and scale the innovative solutions that are within our grasp.”
