Why is LOTI focusing on Adult Social Care?
Adult social care is under enormous pressure. Budget constraints are severe and demand is growing. Both social care professionals and the people they serve report that the quality of outcomes is often not where they would like them to be.
In response, on 21 November 2022, LOTI hosted an innovation day at London City Hall for adult social care professionals and their third and private sector partners to explore the possibility of developing new service models. Participants learned and were supported to think about radical new approaches to meeting social care needs. The focus was on delivering better outcomes in more sustainable ways over the long term, using all the tools, approaches and methods that are available in the internet era.
The event was followed by a £200k innovation fund to incentivise, select and pilot the most promising ideas for new service models. More information on the Innovation Fund we ran can be found in our blog.
The two projects selected as part of the Innovation fund are:
Project 1: Piloting a home care cooperative in Clapton and
Project 2: Developing a prototype multi-agency data platform for frontline care workers
The approach we’re taking
A huge amount of work has already been done to address the challenges in the system of care. However, at LOTI we think that small changes are no longer fit for addressing the growing demand and ever-increasing financial pressures. It’s time to look at other, more radical approaches to addressing the needs of people needing social care. Our projects will explore the potential new service models offer in enabling better outcomes for people.
This work builds on LOTI’s prior research and projects that have examined how boroughs can make better use of assistive technology. To increase our understanding of this field, we have also published the following research:
- Social care technology innovators: This report produced by CC2i, looks at the innovative supplier market, focusing on SMEs and start-ups that offer interesting and relevant tools to social care services.
- New service models: This report produced by PUBLIC, highlights interesting case studies where technology is enabling radical new service models in the UK and abroad to deliver better quality care.
Other projects in this space
Given the complexity of challenges in the Adult Social Care ecosystem, we know it’ll take much more than just the LOTI-funded projects to make a change. Our aim is to raise awareness of and share other work that boroughs and their partners are leading in this space. Here are two other projects we’re aware of:
Kingston Project: Automating Social Care Assessments
This project is led by Kingston Council and funded by the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities. It seeks to better understand whether social care assessments can be codified and therefore automated resulting in faster processing of assessments and better outcomes for people needing care.
Redbridge Project: Adult Social Care Frontdoor Discovery
This project is led by Redbridge Council and is also funded by the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities. It 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.
If you’re interested in contributing, please get in touch at contact@loti.london.
