Social Care Analytics Exemplar – Health Innovation Network South London: London Care Homes Digital Dashboard

The Informatics team in the Health Innovation Network (HIN) have been developing their knowledge and expertise on London Care Homes and their adoption and implementation of a range of digital technologies over the last couple of years.  Initially this was done to support the work that the HIN Healthy Aging team was doing in Care Homes in South London.  However it became clear that this approach was useful more widely across London.

In May 2021 the HIN were formally commissioned by Digital First to create a user friendly and useful care home data dashboard for digital projects underway across London.  Key tasks were:

• to identify a small number of use cases and ensure that data has a purpose/ practical use to support various teams
• bring together national and local datasets specific to each use case
• bring together additional activity data to understand impact of digital projects on emergency healthcare utilisation
• develop a Digital Maturity Index to assess the digital maturity/readiness of care homes

The key reasons for moving forward in this way were because:

• there was a lack of good quality current data on care homes
• it is very difficult to keep track of which care homes are open, closed or changing ownership
• lots of the data was not very user friendly and difficult to interpret, and needed to be used to create action/ improve care
• it is difficult to understand which care homes have good IT infrastructure/ those needing infrastructure urgently (e.g. wifi or tablets), and therefore which homes are most appropriate for pilots e.g. remote consultation
• the data is very fragmented and not easy to use to gather important insight e.g. does a care home have high LAS call outs because it’s a big home or because it calls 999 more than other homes
• there was a need to obtain data at a strategic level e.g. which ICS’s have best NHS mail roll out and which need support, as well as operational level e.g. which care homes do we need to work with to improve the uptake of NHS mail
• it made sense to reduce the duplication of effort across London health and care teams trying to source this data.

A working group was formed with representatives from each of the five ICS/STP areas of London and this group has met monthly since May 2021.  The dashboard has been updated and published monthly via NHS Futures and to people in the NHS or local authorities requesting a copy by email.

Currently, much of the focus is on ensuring that Care Homes have achieved the required standards of the Data Security and Protection Toolkit.  This is a fundamental capability which then enables Care Homes to implement other digital solutions and technologies.

An overview tab gives a high level summary of the number of care homes and care home beds by care home type in each of the 5 ICS/STP areas of London.  See table below for July 2021 data.

The discussion about the development of the Digital Maturity Index has been particularly interesting and the current proposal is that Care Homes will be identified within bands as having minimum, core, enhanced or enhanced plus digital maturity levels. This will enable the teams supporting care homes to more easily see where each care home is on the digital transformation journey and to offer appropriate support or opportunities.

Another aspect currently under discussion is whether the scope of the dash board should be extended to include domiciliary care providers, as the importance of this sector is recognised. However this would add significant complexity to the dashboard so this development has not yet been agreed.

For more information on this project please contact hin.healthyaging@nhs.net