Over £4 million for smart tech to improve care, support independence and reduce hospital admissions announced
Earlier this week, the Minister for Social Care, Helen Whateley announced the latest projects to be awarded funding through wave two of the Adult Social Care Technology Fund.
The Adult Social Care Technology Fund was first launched in April 2023 with the purpose of building a robust evidence base for care technologies. This evidence base can support the care sector to make investment decisions to improve the lives of people in receipt of care and support.
The objective of the fund is to bring together some of the key players who are critical in scaling digital technology to support care. These include adult social care providers, local authorities and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) as well as evaluation and technology partners.
The next four successful bids to receive funding were selected following a detailed evaluation process which we have outlined in this previous update.
The Wave Two successful projects are:
Lead Organisation: Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB)
Project Details: This ICB will receive £1.2 million to develop a medication management system which will monitor dispensing activity of tablet and liquid treatments in real time. This will aim to improve independence and safety for up to 2,500 people.
Lead Organisation: Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB
Project Details: This ICB will receive £1.1 million to implement a pain management tool which aims to support and improve pain identification and management for people who are unable to communicate verbally. The ICB will also implement Robopets to improve the independence and wellbeing for individuals. Both projects will support over 9250 people in domiciliary care and in care homes.
Lead Organisation: The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Project Details: The LA will receive £1.1 million to roll out a range of digital technologies to older people. These include video and communication devices, smart home tech and sensors for fall detection.
This will support 300 people in domiciliary care and measure the impact that personalised digital care can have on people, care provider efficiency and the wider health and care system.
Lead Organisation: Redbridge Place Based Partnership
Project Details: The Place Based Partnership will receive nearly £1 million to implement a suite of care technologies to support falls prevention and detection. These technologies include a monitoring system that uses 4D mapping technology to track people’s movement and detect falls.
Sharing digital experience and learning with the social care sector
The Digitising Social Care programme (DiSC), which is jointly delivered by the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, will be reviewing and reporting on the progress and impact of these innovative schemes in order to share ideas, experience and learning with the wider social care sector. The DiSC team will be creating and sharing toolkits, case studies and evidence of the impact of these technologies with social care providers to support the sector to adopt digital approaches and innovation to improve care.
If you have any questions about the fund please contact england.adultsocialcare@nhs.net