Views on Social Care - September

In collating and editing this newsletter there is always the tension between me and the editor, Emma, about the extent of the content to include. I want to include everything while Emma is the sensible one and says ‘no, let’s keep it bitesize and focus on a few quality things’. As ever Emma wins out, and rightly so.

• So this month we have a taster for you of the September launch of the Care Tech Guide (CTG), one of the most exciting ventures in the care tech community in the UK in the past few years. Casson Consulting is an adviser to CTG, because we think it has the potential to change the way we in the care community engage with technology as knowledgeable consumers and nuanced adopters. So CTG founder, Liam Palmer, takes centre stage this month.
• We also highlight the Markel 3rd sector awards which give many care providers the avenue to gain the recognition they deserve, and we finish off with a future of care piece as Stockport Council shows the way forward with its Family Context project which applies digital solutions to help families.
• We will be very busy this month as we are presenting the Care sector among Health colleagues at the Health Excellence Through Technology (HETT) conference on 26th and 27th of September at Excel. We will be interviewing Lisa Fyfe, Joint CEO of Caremark, ?about the changing face of care provision and how health is increasingly part of care. This is a major part of Casson Consulting’s work because the care community will see its role in health provision growing over the next few years, and we need to be prepared to step up to the plate.
• I am also excited for September because I am helping launch Sensio’s RoomMate at a launch at the Norwegian Embassy on 27th September. Our October edition will include photos and a write up of the event. Casson Consulting tries to seek areas where it can add transformative value to the care community. Sensio’s entry into the UK market has the potential to transform care, as much as the Care Tech Guide has the power to change how we think.

Here's to innovation and adding transformative value!

Cheers

Daniel

September 2023: Care in the UK is changing with the Launch of the Care Tech Guide (CTG)

At the first meeting, it is clear that Liam Palmer is compassionate and cares deeply about social care and improving it for everyone involved. He is committed to creating a better environment for residents and service users and uplifting over 1.6 million care workers in the sector.

Liam's experience in social care has shown him first-hand the importance of making improvements. When he managed a care home, he witnessed a resident lose weight without anyone noticing. The care plans were paper based; unfortunately, her weight loss went undetected, even though the warning signs were there. Liam believes that if care planning software had been in place, the staff would have been alerted immediately, and the resident's life could have been significantly improved with the necessary support during mealtimes, or identification of any deteriorating health conditions or unknown health conditions.

Liam's passion for social care, and his dedication to improving it, stems from a place of empathy and understanding. He has seen first hand the impact of slight changes and is committed to doing everything he can to make a difference.

Liam wanted to find software to keep people safe, support care staff, and help operators supervise everything in real-time. Unfortunately, he discovered that most software suppliers only talked about their features without considering what people and care providers needed. There were few reviews available either, or all the sales pitches just made everything more confusing. That is why Liam decided to create Care Tech Guide (CTG) with the support of colleagues with social care backgrounds; their goal is to make it easier for care providers to choose the care tech as they transition to digital processes.

CTG is an exclusive online, free to use platform for care providers, allowing them to quickly register to research and find the software they require. Users can look at all the products available in our sector, read reviews, and even direct questions to suppliers. This first of its kind service is designed to transform how care providers make purchasing decisions and obtain honest and up-to-date information on care tech to transform how they give a quality service. The the CTG has always been geared towards empowering care providers to make informed choices based on trustworthy and comprehensive information.

Support for this unique resource has come from different respected members of the sector, including Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive Care England, who said, “The development of the Care Tech Guide will be a vital resource for care providers and enable them to make informed choices about what technology will work best for them and the people they support.” www.caretechguide.co.uk goes live this month with a formal launch at the Care Show in October.

Markel Care Awards

Nominations for this year’s the Markel 3rd?Sector Care Awards opened on?Friday 1st September. The Markel 3rd?Sector Care Awards recognise the fantastic work happening in the not-for-profit care and support sector.

Family Context Project at Stockport Council

A project run by Stockport Council? shows what’s possible with data sharing and partnerships.

The Family Context project was awarded funding through the Local Digital Fund to apply data and digital solutions to help ensure young people are safeguarded and fewer end up in care.

The project explored how providing social workers with more complete and contextual information could lead to better decision-making and reduced time spent on finding information for cases.

The project team initially identified datasets and requirements and a working prototype was developed in collaboration with social workers. A trial period saw the team run a successful pilot of the tool with positive feedback from social workers. The tool reduced the time spent searching for information from 2–3 hours to just 20 minutes on average.

Following the evaluation, the tool was rolled out to Stockport Social workers, to be utilised by various teams in social work, child protection, and support services. Regular feedback enabled the project team to implement continuous improvements and this led to additional data sets being added, such as education, health, and youth offending services.

The Family Context project not only improved the social work assessment processes but also highlighted the importance of data quality in digital transformation.

Source: Medium.com