Social Care Programme

The programme supported the health and care sectors to develop ways of sharing information securely between different systems to simplify and standardise the information collected and used. 

There are many links between the health and care system, such as when someone is discharged from hospital into social care, but it's often difficult for health and care professionals to share information about patients and people accessing services. Access to the right information at the right time is essential to transfer people smoothly between care settings and to ensure continuity of care.

We worked with care professionals, commissioners, system leaders, IT suppliers and bodies that represent the care sector to identify, explore and develop digital solutions to address problems such as: 

• information that needs to be shared may not be standardised
• health and social care IT systems may not link up, meaning that information has to be sent by fax or post
• there are differing levels of digital maturity across the health and care system

The programme ran from April 2016 to March 2021 and funded over 100 projects with a total investment of £22.8 million. The funded projects predicted a lifetime benefit of £103.2 million on completion.