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People Scrutiny Committee
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Date of meeting:
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17 July 2023 |
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By: |
Director of Adult Social Care & Health
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Title: |
The use of digital and technology in Adult Social Care |
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Purpose: |
To provide the Committee with a six-month update in respect of the action plan agreed upon the publication of the original Scrutiny review of the use of digital and technology in Adult Social Care |
RECOMMENDATIONS:
The People Scrutiny Committee is recommended to:
1. Comment on consider the progress being made against the agreed actions at Appendix 1.
2. Agree to receive a further update report in six months time.
1. Background Information
1.1. Being Digital is the digital transformation programme in Adult Social Care and Health, which commenced in April 2021 and is due to run until the end of March 2024.
1.2. It is an ambitious and wide-ranging programme that was developed upon the publication of the department’s digital strategy (published February 2021), also called Being Digital.
1.3. There are four ‘P’s’ that the programme delivers against:
· People (clients and carers),
· Practice (internal business improvements),
· Partners (local and national NHS trusts, neighbouring local authorities, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, etc.)
·
Providers
(services that we contract with to deliver care and support on our
behalf).
1.4.
Commencing with
the Scrutiny Committee Scoping Board held on 5 July 2022, the Being
Digital programme was the principal subject of The use of digital
and technology in Adult Social Care Scrutiny Review.
1.5 The final report was agreed by the Scrutiny Committee on 16 December 2022 and full Council agreed the report and the action plan on 7 February 2023.
2. Community Engagement
2.1 In recommendations five, eight, nine and eleven, explicit reference was made to ‘digital by default’, which is a strategic direction the Being Digital programme hopes to lead within the department.
2.2 This direction is not designed to remove any existing communications routes. Rather, as the Government Digital Strategy defines it: “digital by default means digital services which are so straightforward and convenient that all those who can use digital services will choose to do so, while those who can’t are not excluded”.
2.3 The Being Digital programme is actively engaging with members of our community on ‘digital by default’ to ensure that the associated Equality Impact Assessment is as comprehensive as possible. These groups include:
· Disability rights reference group – 17 February 2023
· Inclusion Advisory Group – 24 April 2023
· East Sussex Seniors’ Association (at ESSA’s request, this was delayed from 10 March to a meeting at a later date)
· Ongoing dialogue with TechResort (a Community Interest Company based in Eastbourne that delivers digital skills training) around targeted interventions to combat digital exclusion amongst vulnerable members of the community
2.4 In addition, the Being Digital Programme is also actively engaging with community forums separately about the Technology Enabled Care (TEC) projects (mentioned in a response to recommendation seven):
· Inclusion Advisory Group – 10 October 2022
· Disability Rights Reference Group – 21 October 2022
· East Sussex Senior’s Association – 13 January 2023
· Workshop at the ‘Voices for Carers’ conference – 8 June 2023
· People Bank focus group on Amazon Alexa project – 15 June 2023
2.5
Corporate social media accounts published an update to the
‘linked smoke alarms’ project in June 2023, advising
that since April, 57 web-enabled alarms had been installed by East
Sussex County Council in partnership with East Sussex Fire and
Rescue Service.
3. Conclusion and Reason for Recommendations
3.1 Maximising the use of digital and technology to interact with, and respond to, our resident’s needs, meets increasing demand and ensures the best use of public resources. The Being Digital programme provides structure and oversight to ensure that the benefits of each of the digital projects are maximised in a timely manner, and reflect the needs of clients and their carers.
3.2 The recommendations from the Scrutiny Review have been embedded within the programme and the Committee will continue to be provided with updates as the projects progress.
3.3 A full update of the progress made on the Review recommendations are outlined in the Action Plan at Appendix 1.
MARK STAINTON
Director of Adult Social Care & Health
Officer Contact: Alex Callaghan, Being Digital Delivery Manager
Email: alexander.callaghan@eastsussex.gov.uk