Digital transformation in social care has felt, at times, like another thing being done to providers. Another system, another login, another training session and another cost. But I think we need to look at it differently.

For care providers, digital should not be about having the latest technology for the sake of it. It should be about asking a much simpler question: What problem are we trying to solve?

For many providers, the starting point is still the digital social care record, and that is about far more than taking a paper care plan and putting it on a screen. A good digital care record can give managers a much clearer picture of what is happening across a service, with records being completed contemporaneously, information easier to share, and managers being able to identify things that might otherwise only become obvious when somebody eventually audits a stack of paperwork.

Think about dehydration, nutrition, medication errors or changes in someone’s wellbeing. With paper records, you may only see the pattern when somebody physically goes looking for it. With digital records, there is the potential to see that information much sooner and act on it. That changes the role of digital from simply recording what happened to helping providers understand what is happening.

We have entered a time in social care where the majority of care providers have moved their care plans into a digital format, but are now realising the system they are using is not fit for purpose. And that is where I think care providers should now start to think much more about “Which system should we buy next?”

Start with: “Where are our current risks?”

What are managers spending hours checking? What are the pain points with our current way of working? Where are records regularly incomplete? What information is difficult to find? Where are staff duplicating information? What happens when someone moves between services? What would you want to know about your service today that you currently cannot see until next week?

Those questions will tell you far more about what you need than a sales demonstration ever will.

There is also an important point about person-centred care. Some of the historic digital solutions on the market have removed the outcomes focus for people and replaced it with tasks. Social care is not about task and time; it is about supporting people to achieve their goals.

More technology does not automatically mean better care.

I have seen enough technology in social care to know that another dashboard, another alert and another login can sometimes create more work rather than less. If your staff are drowning in notifications, they will eventually stop seeing the important ones. So, when providers look at technology, they need to ask what it actually adds.

Does it reduce a risk?

Does it make information easier to access?

Does it help staff make better decisions?

Does it give managers better oversight?

Does it improve the experience for the person receiving care?

If the answer is no, why are you buying it?

The same applies when choosing a digital care record. Don’t choose a system simply because another provider uses it. Get your frontline staff involved. Ask them what frustrates them about the current process. Talk to managers. Talk to the people receiving care and, where appropriate, their families.

Then take those problems to suppliers and ask them to show you how their system solves them.

Not how many features they have.

Show me how this makes my service safer.

Show me how this improves the experience for my staff.

Show me how I can see what is happening in my service.

And don’t forget the boring stuff.

Cyber security.

Business continuity.

Data portability.

What happens if you want to leave?

How will your data be extracted?

These things might not look exciting during a sales demonstration, but they matter enormously to a care provider. The assured solutions process looks at areas including functionality, cyber security, interoperability, business continuity, disaster recovery and commercial exit arrangements.

And perhaps the biggest mistake providers can make is thinking the technology itself is the transformation.

It isn’t. People are.

A care provider can buy the most sophisticated system available and still end up with poor records if staff don’t understand why they are using it.

That is why digital champions can be so valuable. Find the people on the frontline who are interested in technology, involve them early and let them support colleagues. Start small if you need to. Pilot something. Learn from it. Adapt it.

Don’t turn digital implementation into another tick-box exercise.

Ultimately, this isn’t about social care catching up with health, or health catching up with social care. It is about both working towards something much more useful: a connected system around the person.

Technology won’t solve every problem we have. It won’t replace relationships, professional judgement or the human side of care. But, used well, it can help us share information, spot risks earlier, reduce duplication and make it easier for the different parts of someone’s care to work together.

And perhaps that is the real opportunity. Not digital for digital’s sake. Not another system because someone says we need one. But technology that quietly works in the background, connecting people, information and services so that the person receiving care doesn’t have to do the connecting themselves.

Our Head of OpenDoc, Mark Topps, sat down with colleagues from the CQC and DHSC to talk through exactly these questions: what “good” digital looks like in social care, and how we build a system that genuinely connects around the person rather than adding another layer of complexity.

You can listen to the full discussion here: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-6srfb-1b5c5ba

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