Social care case management

A new framework - the first of its kind in Scotland - has gone live to help local authorities source social care management systems.

The Social Care Case Management Solutions Framework will help councils boost digital capability in the delivery of care, while also offering self-directed support functions for citizens to give greater digital control and choice in their care.

Five UK-based SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises) have secured a place on the framework and all offer nationwide coverage to work with councils across the country.

The framework offers tools and solutions to support frontline practice, self-management and shared decision making, with the standards required to deliver secure information sharing between care teams and health partners.

It is a joint initiative by Scotland Excel and the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government and is expected to see a spend of around £28 million over four years.

Julie Welsh, Chief Executive of Scotland Excel, said: “Social care case management is vital part of care provision - ensuring councils and their health partners are able to deliver essential services to residents who need support.

“Scotland Excel will actively manage suppliers through the duration of the framework. This means that local authorities can be confident that they are receiving best value services and products.

“As well as front line staff being able to securely and safely access, update and share information, the solutions offered through the framework include self-directed support capability for citizens, to improve their ability to shape and control the services they receive.”

Martyn Wallace, Chief Digital Officer for the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government, said: “In the past year, we have seen the important role that digital solutions play in enabling quick access to vital information on vulnerable people in our communities.

“Suppliers within this framework will support us with being able to utilise available data sets to help with ongoing support and wellbeing to vulnerable people. It also aligns with the intended direction of the upcoming refreshed Scottish Digital Health and Care Strategy which has two specific themes around cloud and data, which should be considered in any solutions built for health and care across the public sector.”

This framework is good news for councils and integrated joint boards (IJBs) as it will support them in sourcing from UK-based providers who have been through a detailed tender process, are ready to do business and support our direction of travel of being able to get to our data in a quick and structured manner.

The framework has achieved fixed prices for a number of services including licences, configuration, delivery, implementation, knowledge transfer and training. It also includes services which have upfront annual recurring costs including cover support and maintenance (like upgrades and bug fixes). Costs for these have been fixed for a year.

All services offered through the framework will be compliant with the National Cyber Security Centre’s ‘Cloud Security Principles’ to give maximum data information security and ongoing protection.