New online learning resource supports switch to digital telecare

The need for new and innovative solutions to providing health and social care has been pulled into sharp focus by the Covid-19 pandemic. So Scotland Excel is delighted to have been working with the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government to develop an online learning resource to support health and social care partnerships (HSCPs) as they move from analogue to digital telecare ahead of the decommissioning of all analogue telephone lines in the UK by 2025.

Scotland Excel has been supporting local authorities in purchasing telehealth and telecare devices since 2015 with the current technology enabled care framework extended to HSCPs and designed to provide more comprehensive location and lifestyle monitoring services, as well as consumer grade home health monitoring devices, to help reduce unnecessary admissions to primary and secondary healthcare. Crucially, the framework also allows for digital specifications to be added, and Scotland Excel has been working closely with the Digital Office to scope out the digital telecare solutions of the future. 

The launch of the Digital Office’s Digital Telecare Playbook last month is another step in helping HSCPs manage the inexorable progression towards wholly digital telecare solutions. According to the publication A Guide to Digital Telecare - Scottish Local Government, moving from analogue to digital telecare solutions is no longer an option. It is a necessity. Hence, the Playbook bundles step-by-step guidance to achieving digital transformation around several pathways to form one compelling, continuous learner journey.

The first three pathways - ‘Management’, ‘Technical & Security’ and ‘Procurement’ - are now live and Telecare managers and staff are being invited to begin the journey by first registering at https://telecare.digitaloffice.scot/ (if they haven’t already done so). From there they are presented with a menu of pathways with each following the three-phased approach of best practice used to guide the transition to a digital telecare service – discovery, planning and implementation.

Scotland Excel’s involvement in the Procurement Pathway has delivered thoroughly comprehensive guidance to support the procurement elements of the transition to digital telecare and will continue to inform the process when Senior Procurement Specialist, Richard Bridgen, co-hosts a Procurement Pathway Launch webinar with the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government to introduce the brand new pathway to stakeholders.

Running from 2 – 3pm on Tuesday, 16^th June, the webinar is designed to provide expert, interactive tuition, as well as an opportunity to ask questions, and represents an important step towards a smooth, safe transition to digital services for people benefitting from telecare right across Scotland.