The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has urged social care providers and their suppliers of digital systems to comply with the data standards it released earlier this year.
Its Digitising Social Care team has said that suppliers should engage with it to ensure their systems comply with the Minimum Operational Data Standards, published earlier this year, to qualify for its Assured Solution List.
This is a step towards meeting the target of 80% of care providers in England using digital social care records (DSCRs) by March of next year. Currently over 70% have made the switch from data to digital.
The team has also indicated that it expects to publish more data standards as digital working becomes more embedded in the sector.
A blogpost from Digitising Social Care said the minimum standard list was developed in collaboration with a range of people from across the sector. Its fields reflect a baseline of what providers currently record to support regulatory requirements, facilitate increased interoperability and align the core information providers need to support care.
Stick to roadmap
Suppliers that qualify for the list are contractually obliged to comply with the DSCR Standards and Capabilities Roadmap, which is updated when new standards are listed.
“It’s important that providers have regular conversations with their DSCR suppliers to understand their development plans and how they are working to maintain compliance with published standards for DSCRs,” the blogpost said.
It added a reminder that funding is available to support the digitisation of social care records under a £100 million programme announced in April of last year.
