13.12.14
Improving information sharing in social care
Source: Public Sector Executive Dec/Jan 2015
Just over six months ago, Leicester City Council implemented new systems for its adult and children’s social care teams to improve reporting. Project manager Ashok Popat tells PSE that information-sharing is much better than it was.
A £2.8m overhaul of social care IT systems in Leicester is proving a good investment, with information-sharing much improved since new software went live in April.
Leicester City Council’s (LCC’s) project manager Ashok Popat told PSE: “Teams are able to use the software to share information, rather than exchanging emails or making phone calls. This helps to ensure that more up-to-date information is readily available for all staff concerned.”
The seven-year framework contract was awarded to Liquidlogic in February 2013, following a tendering exercise, replacing former provider CareFirst. The system also includes a payments function called ContrOCC (from Oxford Computing Consultants).
LCC stated that due to changes associated with the Care Bill, capital bids were made to enhance the Liquidlogic system further, such as a client portal for adults’ social care and eCAF for early intervention (children’s) including support from the project team and supplier.
The total project cost was about £2.8m, of which £2.7m was secured and £0.1m was a bid to the Better Care Fund. This latter money is intended to be used to improve joint working between social care and the NHS through better systems integration.
According to the local authority, the benefits of the new Liquidlogic application will help future-proof the organisation through the advances of modern intuitive technology that is both user-friendly and can support new initiatives and legislation, including the new Care Bill and integration agenda with health.
Benefits include safeguarding clients and service users through more modern and user friendly technology; meaningful information through better reporting capability informing social care practice, managing resources and commissioning services; and improved communication.
Integration information flows
The city’s Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) stated that the council will work with health partners to ensure that information flows between health and social care are carried out electronically, securely and safely by using national standards.
The Liquidlogic technology also allows for the NHS number to be imported and used as a primary identifier along with capabilities for real-time validation to support day-to-day operational working. The HWB wants to ensure this capability is actually used, and the council is talking to the Health & Social Care Information Centre to ensure appropriate procedures are in place. As PSE went to press, the council was in the process of applying, as a commissioner, to the HSCIC (Health and Social Care Information Centre) for the NHS numbers to bulk-populate Liquidlogic records with verified NHS numbers.
LCC is also developing a technical infrastructure between Liquidlogic and the NHS Spine to make personal demographic data available to frontline social care staff. This second phase of work should be complete around January 2015.
During this work, role-based access control will be in place as part of the deployment, and relevant staff will be trained to use the NHS number. Leicester’s HWB stated that linking health and social care records is a key step towards having shared records for patients and social care users.
“A shared record is one of the mechanisms for ensuring that care is more joined up for patients and avoids patients having to retell their histories multiple times especially if they have episodes of care at different locations at different times,” it added.
Another impact of the work will be to allow the local health and social care community to evaluate the impact of the new pathways that are integrating health and social care responses in the community.
Fundamentally, the scheme is about supporting integrated care across the health and social care economy. Popat told us that although the systems require more frequent updates to records by all staff, including managers recording authorisations on the system, which were previously done manually, it is working well. He added that it has been a big change for the staff, who had used the previous system for more than 10 years. “It’s bound to take time for staff to get used to new methods of working, and we still have more work to do. We continue to work with the suppliers to suggest and recommend improvements to the systems,” said Popat.
“But overall, we’re very pleased with how the implementation has gone and we’ll continue to work hard to ensure we make the most out of the improved functions it offers for our staff.”
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