We don’t know what we don’t know! Important and useful “Going Digital” resources for housing and social care colleagues

I got a fitbit for Christmas, and it regularly updates me and sends me messages on how I’m doing, and we all have smart phones and seem to live our lives through our ipads, but what we really value is their connectivity and how they help us live our lives. But are we making the most of it in social care - what Directors of Adult Social Care are increasingly telling me is - we don’t know what we don’t know, when it comes to digital technology in the home. Whilst Directors understand the principles, they want to know how to take the digital agenda forward as part of service improvements and investment plans.

So we decided to do something to help and brought together a couple of focused workshops with experts. The result is ADASS, supported by the Housing Learning and Improvement Network (LIN) and Local Government Association has developed a really informative web resource that aims to answer:

• How can ADASS better inform its members about the connection between technology and at-home care and support, whether in mainstream and/or specialist housing?
• What are the benefits of getting the right technological infrastructure into local commissioning strategies, integrated services, housing design and manufacturing, and procurement?

This new website is not the panacea, but it’s another piece of the jigsaw. Adult social care directors should be having meaningful dialogue with their provider partners around their digital strategies to meet the infrastructure needs going forward. Many are operating in the old world of analogue with specifications still coming out asking for pull cords and speech modules – the technological equivalent of the horse and cart!

The world is rapidly becoming digital and our ambition is to ensure that the people we aim to support get access to the benefits it provides, and keep them more independent into the bargain. This resource should get the conversation going to link into future commissioning and procurement strategies.

The resource can be found here www.housinglin.org.uk/Going-Digital and contents cover

1. A digital agenda - Introduction
2. Getting resourced - policy, funding & planning
3. Smarter thinking - Commissioning
4. The gallery - Art of the possible
5. Technology considerations
6. Knowledge exchange - Benefits of technology-enabled housing

We are hoping to keep adding links in order to keep it a live document and have ongoing work where gaps exist. Please do send your feedback and ideas to info@housinglin.org.uk