Proportion has increased by more than ten percentage points – but is still some way short of 80% target for March 2024
Picture credit: vargazs/Pixabay
More than half of social care records systems across England have now been digitised – but the rate of progress remains some way short of what would be required to meet the target of 80% uptake by March 2024.
In December 2021, NHS England launched the £150m Digitising Social Care programme, a key strand of which is driving the adoption of digital records. The scheme set a target of reaching 80% uptake of digital social care records (DSCRs) by March 2024.
Related content
- Government plans national platform for sharing of social-care data
- NHS plans £150m framework to help solve trusts legacy issues with patient data
- Scotland unveils health and care data strategy to ‘empower’ patients
While this figure remains some way off, progress so far has seen “adoption of DSCRs has increased from a baseline of 40% in December 2021 to more than 50% now”, according to social care minister Helen Whately.
“DSCRs have been shown to deliver significant productivity benefits, releasing up 20 minutes per care worker per shift on average,” she added. “The programme works with teams in the integrated care systems across England to develop plans, track uptake of technology and collect evidence on the impact of this work.”
The minister – who was answering a written parliamentary question from Solihull MP Julian Knight – said that the digitisation programme has so far “invested almost £50m to help care providers digitise and will invest a further £100m over the next two years” to support further technology adoption.