Government crest Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

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Laying the foundations for the local public services of the future

User journeys into adult social care (ASC)

Contents:

  1. Project outputs
  2. Project timeline

Councils are facing a huge demand for adult care services (ASC) due to an ageing population and changes to the Care Act. 

Led by the London Borough of Redbridge, this project will identify opportunities to deliver more preventative interventions and effective triaging. The objective is to keep residents healthier, maintain their independence and remain at home for longer.

This discovery will map user journeys into adult care, ultimately helping residents seeking care and local authority staff tasked with meeting this need through:

  • informing a clear user journey for residents to get the right help at the right time
  • reducing demand on front line staff through more opportunities for residents to self serve
  • shifting resources to preventative care, keeping residents healthier and at home longer

This will aim to address universal issues council face, including: 

  • limited council resources
  • ineffective triaging and signposting
  • an ageing population – Redbridge expects to see 27% more over 65-year-olds by 2030
  • changes to the Care Act, with expected increase in demand due to increased eligibility and the need to reassess existing clients

This project will lay the foundations for improved service delivery, empower residents to take charge of their care, make efficient use of resources and enable councils to provide a truly digital service.

Project outputs

The discovery will include user journey to front door of ASC services, prior to adoption of a care plan, enabling councils to anticipate need and have effective and automated triage methods.

Outputs will include user research and journey mapping, identifying key life and health events.

Project details

Phase: Discovery

Funding granted: £100,000

Partners: London Borough of Redbridge (Lead Council), Barnet London Borough Council, London Borough of Sutton Council, Kingston London Borough Council, London Office of Technology and Innovation, London Borough of Southwark Council, Dorset Council, London Borough of Waltham Forest Council

Project links

Project timeline

March 2023

The project is awarded £100,000 in funding through Round 6 of the Local Digital Fund to begin a discovery phase.

May 2023

Team members from the partner councils met to establish roles and responsibilities for the discovery. They also looked at building user groups and working groups made up of Adult Social Care subject experts from across the partner councils.

The team is working on a procurement brief to get support for their research into Adult Social Care and early interventions, which they plan to finalise and publish on Digital Outcomes and Specialists (DOS) this sprint. They’ve also been working on internal communications to support and gain engagement and reach around the project, so that all staff are aware and feel involved in the process.

Next sprint, they will book in sessions with stakeholders and user groups to explain the purpose of the discovery, and set a timetable for updates to all partners and project governance.