The importance of this project

The delivery of services by different agencies within adult social care means that provision can sometimes be disjointed. Agencies often have limited visibility of how residents interact with other services, leading to the duplication of assessments and other inefficiencies.

In addition, individuals do not always benefit from a person-centred care model because adult services staff are unable to access the information required to deliver this, leading to poorer outcomes for those in receipt of care.

Teams in Hounslow have noted the following about the current delivery model:

• Assessment of risk: It is more difficult to assess risk as staff do not have visibility of all the services a person is receiving or has received in the past. This can mean they are often reliant on the recall of the individual.
• Delayed discharge from hospital: Staff who sit within the hospital social work team can spend two to three days assessing a care package for patients who need to be discharged. They also struggle to get effective data regarding social care involvements before patients arrive in hospital.
• Duplication of assessments: A lack of co-ordination between services and interventions means there is frequent duplication of assessments and home visits by professionals. This can be frustrating and anxiety-inducing for those using the services.

Whilst digitisation and data sharing has significantly improved across the sector and had a positive impact on the experiences of those receiving care, there are still constraints and challenges – in particular around the technical, legal and cultural barriers to data sharing, which mean that agencies still experience delays. 

This project demonstrates a step change for two local authorities in North West London. By testing a tool that has helped to create efficiencies in the children’s social care space, the aim was to surface the information that professionals working within adult social care need to do their jobs more effectively.