The UK has an ageing population. Recognising this demographic transition, the UK Government is introducing new requirements captured in the Care Cap white paper transforming the current Adult Social Care (ASC) service. Local Government is key in  administering and delivering the new requirements, adapting ASC services to serve the need of the service users. 

However, increasing demand and delivering high-quality services with limited resources will place new demand on the administrative support of digital technology and provides an opportunity to build a new innovative service around the end-user. 

Opportunities to work collectively

Whether it’s about building systems that sit alongside current technology or building new ones, the opportunities to work collectively and bring ideas together has enabled us as a council to lead the thinking not just in London but with other councils across the country.

In Redbridge, our ambition led us to actively network and lobby about how we need to build a new and robust Front Door for Adult Social Care, one that can cope with the increasing demand and the expected population growth of 26% by 2030 of over 65 years. 

Understanding who is coming through our ‘front door’

We were successful in securing funding from the Local Digital Fund which will help us take a significant step in moving towards a new vision for social care.

To meet demand for Adult Social Care, we must understand who is coming through our ‘front door’. This project will explore user journeys into adult social care and gather data on user needs and journeys to enable well evidenced design decisions that focus on preventative care and effective and automated triaging.

The project is one of 16 council-led digital projects that was awarded funding through Round 6 of the Local Digital Fund.

Partner councils have evidence that the user journeys into Adult Social Care are confusing, incomplete or ‘boomerang’ where residents keep coming back to resolve a problem. This includes journeys from national NHS online services to local NHS care records and social care journeys. 

We will explore the journeys that residents take into adult care, enabling anyone interacting with the council to be able to complete what they set out to do in as few steps as possible and in a way that is easy to use. Ultimately, helping them get the right help at the right time, reducing demand on front line staff through more opportunities to self-serve and shifting resources to preventative care, keeping residents healthier and at home longer. 

The project is being led by Redbridge Council who have partnered up with the London Office of Technology & Innovation (LOTI), London Borough of Barnet, London Borough of Sutton (shared with Kingston), Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (shared with Sutton), London Borough of Southwark, Dorset Council and London Borough of Waltham Forest. 

If you have any questions about the project, please get in touch with Corinne at Corinne.Barrett@redbridge.gov.uk.

This blog post has been written by Corinne Barrett, Digital Programme Lead for Customer Experience at London Borough of Redbridge.