Calls for assistive technology to become ‘mainstream’ in social care

A new report is calling for a new framework and funding to make assistive technology ‘mainstream’ in adult social care services, including providing the infrastructure to roll this out effectively in rural areas.

The County Councils Network report, supported by Tunstall Healthcare, looks at the prevalence of assistive technology (AT) in county authorities and what can be done to both scale it up across whole social care systems, and maximise its benefits to people in care and professionals.

AT incorporates systems such as telecare, which uses wireless technology in the home to provide 24 support, and telehealth, which enables patients and clinicians to work together to monitor health remotely. Both systems enable care to be more targeted and preventative, and empower people to remain independent and well.

The report finds that whilst this tech has been effectively used to improve care for individuals, much more can be done to place AT at the centre of local adult social care – from using data, to aligning health and care monitoring systems together - as part of closer integration between health and social care.

But 69 per cent of county authorities surveyed as part of the report answering that AT was more difficult to roll out in rural areas compared to urban locations, and with councils reliant on temporary grant funding in delivering social care, the report calls for the right settings so local authorities can ramp up their usage of AT.  The majority of respondents also cited a lack of knowledge on the tech currently available.

Whilst 75 per cent of respondents said that the benefits of AT were being partially realised in their authorities, and that there was potential for further development but a lack of funding and overlapping local health system boundaries were holding their authorities back.

Key recommendations of the report include: ensuring that social care reform includes a commitment to a National Strategic Framework for integrating assistive technology into social care; ensuring there is appropriate infrastructure in place to enable assistive technology to be used effectively in all parts of the country; facilitating improved education and training for social care professionals to ensure they are confident in utilising assistive technology within their role; and encouraging greater co-creation of solutions through adult social care professionals and technology developers working collaboratively.

Keith Glazier, Health and Social Care Spokesperson for the CCN, said: “For local authorities, the use of AT is not just about providing effective care for individuals, but is increasingly about developing and delivering innovation-led digital health and care solutions which provide new, more efficient, and effective models for health and care management in the community.

“The increasing potential for employing technology at scale and utilising data offers a tantalising possibility of having a significant impact on the way care is delivered; achieving better outcomes for vulnerable people of all ages, in a more cost effective way than more traditional models of care provision. But this can only be done with the right settings in place – and today’s report offers much food for thought as to how we can further embed AT in our local systems.”