Transform Issue 25 - October 2021 Edition

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Social Care at the iESE

Delegates at the recent iESE Conference heard from an esteemed panel on issues around digital and technology in the social care sector. Here we draw out some highlights from the conversation. To watch the complete talk ‘ Click this link. PANELLISTS: Dr Jules Maitland, founder and managing director of human-centred design agency all In. Joanne Harding, Executive Member for Adult Social Care at Trafford Council. Mark Allen, Head of Tech and Digitally Enabled Care at Hampshire County Council. Craig McArthur, Director of Health and Social Care at East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership. Chaired by Dr Andrew Larner, Chief Executive at iESE.

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Dr Andrew Larner (AL): What is the need for the humancentred approach to services, why is it important and what does that mean? Jules Maitland (JM): “When we have top-down approaches to fixing especially complex problems they often break apart and they often break apart because there is no one viewpoint that can solve these complex problems. Clinical experts are important, but they are not experts in the lives of the people that are impacted by these complex social problems. The people experiencing the problems and those delivering the care on a daily basis are not traditionally at the table when decisions are made about policy or programmes or technology solutions. Taking a human-centred design approach elevates that voice.” Joanne Harding (JH): “One of the things we need to be ever mindful of when we think about our solutions for the future is that we don’t lose sight of the people that we are trying to serve and represent. We all know that social care is a very hot topic at the moment and there have been lots of conversations about funding, but to me it isn’t just about how we fund social care, it is about how we reform social care and we reform social care by involving the people in receipt of care and also those people delivering care. Whatever we do in the future around digital transformation and saving lives, we make sure that we include and involve people who are in receipt of care and staff who are delivering that care and that to me is imperative, we have to involve the people who have that lived experience.” Mark Allen (MA): “My job in Hampshire County Council is to implement technology in a social care setting and it isn’t about technology, it is about how can we deliver effective and efficient care services for vulnerable people. The approach we take is very much outcomes based. All the time we are looking at how we can integrate technology into the care process. It is very easy to get caught up in the shiny object and new thing but what we try to do is make sure that we can blend that in with different sorts of care so that people’s holistic needs are met as far as we possibly can. Use of technology enables us to do things that are less intrusive, easier for people to use and are available 24/7 which is really a key element of it and actually can be bespoke to those individuals, which for me is a really important part of this – when we look at technology, how useful is it going to be to Mr Jones.” Craig McArthur (CM): “Digital is not always the answer. We always have to remember that people should be at the heart of what we are doing, sometimes a digital solution is the right solution but there is a process to get there and that is understanding and talking to people and seeing what they want and seeing what the best delivery method might be. One of the challenges for us is accessibility to the technology to actually access the service in the first instance and that is a big part of what we need to build into those design processes as well, understanding

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