Socitm Publishes Digital Health And Social Care Advice

Socitm, the representative body for people in public sector IT, has published a new guide to information and technology challenges and opportunities arising due to changing health and social care.

The 22-page document, Redesigning Health and Social Care, aims to provide a high-level illustrated guide to recent and forthcoming reforms such as the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and Care Act 2014.

Material contained within the summary was inspired and developed from a series of conferences and workshops late last year which were managed by the organisation for the Department of Health (DoH) with support from ADASS.

Socitm highlights the consequences of the introduction of new legislation, especially for IT and digital policy and activity.

Underlying issues in the report relate to the whole of the UK, although the summary specifically applies to England in terms of new policies.

According to the organisation, challenges are presented by unprecedented numbers of older people and incapacitating health conditions.

“The government has put in place a legislative framework to meet these challenges with the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and the Care Act 2014,” the report says.

“These and other developments, like the pooling of funding by local NHS and local authority social care teams through the Better Care Fund, and the creation of health and wellbeing boards, are bringing about major changes in governance, management, organisation, funding and delivery across the NHS public health and social care,” it adds.

Technology At Heart Of Reforms

Socitm says the heart of these reforms is a recognition that rising demand will create unsustainable costs and better integrated ways of working and deploying resources across the sector will both saving money and improves services for users.

This will be dependent on the take-up of IT and digital technologies that will allow health and care providers to be more productive, give citizens the means to behave in a way that reduces demands, as well as the ability to get more from such services when required.

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