NHS Digital is supporting the creation of a “sector-led service” to help independent providers of adult social care make better use of digital tools.

A £793,000 deal to create the service has been awarded by NHS Digital to the members Care Provider Alliance – an industry group comprised of the UK’s 10 biggest independent or voluntary-sector providers of adult social care services. 

The Alliance will initially assess “current levels of digital maturity” across the sector, according to NHS Digital, before helping providers make use of tools that are currently available. It will then go on to develop “a core set of requirements for care providers to use when procuring new IT systems, as well as best practice for managing IT suppliers”.

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NHS Digital’s director of primary care and social care Nic Fox said: “Enabling information to be shared safely and securely between the NHS, local government, and social care providers has the potential to really improve standards of care and the way that care is delivered. It’s really important to stress that the work being done here is by the sector, for the sector, which will help to move the digital standards conversation forward within the care provider community.”

The money was awarded by NHS Digital through a procurement process launched in July. The engagement with the 10 members of the Care Provider Alliance runs until March 2021.

Speaking on behalf of the Alliance, Ian Turner, chairman of the Registered Nursing Home Association, said: “We are really excited to be working with NHS Digital on this project. Safe and efficient information sharing has the potential to really transform the way care is delivered in the social care sector. What’s also really positive is the fact that all of the work will be done in collaboration with the social care sector, enabling the sector to drive the agenda.”