Are you looking for local government technology trends that will improve the quality and mitigate the risks to the range of services your local government department provides? Have you recently started revitalising your digital journey but are not sure what software, products, or equipment are best to invest in? Or maybe you’re just interested in seeing how other local authorities are innovating workflows with technology?
If that is you, then your first step is to fully understand the variety of technology that can be used to improve your services.
Very much like legislation, technology is constantly changing. It is essential to keep up-to-date with the latest technology advances and trends to ensure the needs of citizens in your local area are met, outcomes improve, and both local and national targets are reached.
CQC inspections of local authorities were reintroduced as part of the Health and Care Act 2022, as you are probably already aware.
These changes allow the CQC to act upon their additional responsibilities laid out in the Care Act 2014. Here their additional responsibilities include assessing how local authorities are meeting their adult social care duties including market shaping, market oversight and more.
You may be wondering exactly how the CQC inspections of local authorities will work, what will the CQC be assessing, and most importantly how can your local council can best prepare for CQC local authority inspections.
At the Access Group we want to make sure that all local authorities are as prepared as they can be for these new inspection changes, and we will be answering these key questions in this article.
As well as addressing the fundamentals about the changes to the CQC inspection we will also address how the CQC have been preparing their assessment methods and what they discovered from testing and the changes they are making to ensure when these new inspections take place they will be effective and beneficial for all those involved.
The availability of the Local Digital Fund is more important than ever as the UK looks to steadily modernise public services to catch up to the technological levels present in other aspects of society.
Digitisation is the driver behind local government technology trends at present, with a demand to better handle data management, communication, the transition to cloud-based data storage (rather than huge server racks) and to improve cyber security in the wake of an ever-rising number of attempts to illegally access private information.
The benefits are self-evident, but the cost of digital transformation in local government is a difficult challenge for local authorities – many of whom are fighting to break even each year. We’ve already heard the sad news that Birmingham and Nottingham city councils have, respectively, declared bankruptcy. These won’t be the last councils to struggle with the economic squeeze post-pandemic, so it’s important that financial assistance is given to ensure that key projects such as digitisation aren’t overlooked given how vital they are to the future functionality of government and the potential for cost-savings too.
In this article we will explore the local digital funding available to local authorities in England specifically, as well as where councils can find the funds, how to apply for funding, and some examples of successful development off the back of receiving funding.
Local digital funding
YPO and Access Adam Care Commissioning have been in partnership since 2020. This partnership has been able to provide bespoke commissioning solutions to customers across health and social care, transport, housing, and procurement.
But what are the benefits of this partnership? How does it overcome the challenges the public sector face during the procurement cycle and what are the best ways to use YPO frameworks?
By the end of this article, all these questions should be answered as well how a YPO framework agreement works, and how working with both YPO and Access Adam Care Commissioning is the best way to procure the services and goods your local authority needs at the best value for money.
At The Access Group we are aware of the challenges of procurement in the public sector and they can be difficult to overcome, especially when transitioning to digital procurement. We want to help local authorities make the process of commissioning and procuring the services they tend as easy as possible, at a better value, and take a fraction of the time.
This article will review who YPO are, how they work, why we decided to partner with them, as well as the best ways your local community can work with both of us to get the best outcomes.
Housing compliance is slowly becoming one of the biggest issues in the housing sector. The demand for social and temporary housing keeps rapidly increasing but the availability of compliant homes is decreasing.
Currently, housing is one of the top wider social determinants of health that individuals across the UK must face every day. It is believed that many housing crises are happening currently, but one of the biggest we are facing is the availability of fully compliant social and temporary housing.
In the last year alone over 100,000 households were living in temporary accommodation including over 120,000 children. Currently, 68% of families have been living in temporary accommodation for over a year. The housing charity Shelter has argued that due to the housing issues and risks we are currently facing, temporary housing is slowly becoming the new social housing. The 2023 Homelessness Monitor has reported that 85% of councils across England are facing an increase in people experiencing homelessness.
What is causing this increase in demand for social and temporary housing and why is compliant housing so difficult to find and use?
At Access Adam Housing, we know how important it is for local authorities and councils to seek fully compliant housing to place individuals and families in and help them get back on their feet.
This article will explain what housing compliance is, and why it is important, as well as highlight the housing risks when homes are not fully compliant or when compliance housing isn’t taken seriously.
This article will also address what the government has put in place to overcome the challenges of housing compliance and how our housing management software offers a unique solution to make these housing issues more manageable and ensure you only ever work with 100% compliant housing providers from now on.
Prevention and early intervention in health and social care is undoubtedly crucial to ensure we delay future care needs, reduce hospital admissions and readmissions, and reduce the pressure on the NHS, and clinicians, and social care providers.
But, you are probably aware there has been a shift towards implementing more proactive care to catch illnesses and conditions earlier to reduce hospitalisations, discharge delays and have a better and bigger positive impact on people’s lives so no care need is left unmet.
The shift towards proactive care is important as it is driven by the desire to improve outcomes, enhance quality of life, and create a more sustainable and efficient health and social care system.
With more than 10% of patients being on waiting lists for treatments for up to a year, making the shift from reactive care to preventative and proactive care is essential to delay and reduce the need for further care and support in the future. Digital telecare is a great way to achieve by offering the opportunity to increase independence and decrease the dependency on social care providers and the NHS.
But what exactly is the difference, and why is the shift important, how will being more proactive help local authorities, hospitals, and most importantly the individual?
At the Access Group we are aware of how important the shift to proactive care is and want to make this shift as easy as possible to minimise disruption.
This article will review the difference between reactive, preventative and proactive care to highlight the importance of being more proactive to address every unmet need and ensure no one is left without the high quality care they need, as well as what the challenges are when making the shift to proactive care and how best to overcome them.
Both e-procurement and traditional procurement methods are used in many different ways across the health and social care sector. The digitisation of data and processes is just one way local authorities are trying to improve their care delivery, and digitalising procurement and brokerage is no different.
But what is the difference between e-procurement and more traditional methods of procurement, is the change of working worth it, and does it help deliver better quality care?
By the end of this article all these questions should be answered and you should have a better understanding of the benefits of digitsing processes in health and social care.
Since 2018, the UK government have created a number of whitepapers to outline plans to improve local areas through community and health initiatives. The NHS Long Term Plan focuses on enhancing wellbeing in communities and aims to reach its goals through digital transformation to further improve patient care with more digital solutions.
At Access Adam Care Commissioning we are aware of the challenges local authorities experience organizing, commissioning, and delivering high quality care, as well as how the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated these challenges further. We know it’s important that companies develop technology which allows services to be agile, accessible, flexible, and secure, to connect services together so communities have the ability to support one another.
This article will explore how digitally transforming your procurement methods can help improve community health and wellbeing as well as what the key differences are between traditional methods of procurement and e-procurement methods and the impacts each have on local communities to deliver better person-centred care.
Co-production might be a concept you are aware of if you work in either healthcare, social care or related services. Co-production has been growing in popularity over the years. It is an approach to find new ways to collaborate and exchange both training and resources to help deliver better person-centred care.
However, due to the pandemic a lot of local authorities and NHS Trusts stopped using a co-production approach due it taking time, money, and often there being mixed opinions within a team on what would benefit the community.
Now it has started to become a priority again with more and more local authorities looking to use the approach. But, how can it be implemented again without the problems that occurred before?
The new procurement bill has caught media attention quite significantly over the last few months since parliamentary debates started. You may be aware of what some of the initial debates were over but now you might be confused where we are in the procurement bill timeline.
Since debates have started there have been many amendments and changes and now we are nearing the third reading. But what does that really mean and how long will it be until it becomes law and local authorities need to act upon it?
At The Access Group we think it is vital that all local authorities not only know and understand the procurement bill, but they know how it will impact their community and how best to prepare for the procurement changes.
By the end of this article all of that should become clear. Here we will discuss what the procurement bill is, why is it important for local authorities, where we are currently in the procurement bill timeline as well as how best local authorities can prepare for the change in legislation.
Outcomes based commissioning in social care is a change from older unit based commissioning. As you are probably aware unlike older approaches to commissioning care, outcomes based commissioning focuses on results instead of actions. But you may be wondering why is it important and how can it benefit your local community? Or you might be questioning how outcome based commissioning works compared to older approaches? Or perhaps how other local authorities are implementing outcomes based commissioning?
At The Access Group, we know how important it is to deliver care that is person-centred. We understand that through care commissioners and care providers working together towards the same outcomes, better results are possible, to improve the quality of life for people in your local community.
We have worked with a variety of local authorities to help deliver the best outcomes based commissioning across the care continuum to bring together care services across the community including health, primary care, secondary care, monitoring, support, and commissioning.
This article will review the importance of outcomes based commissioning and how following a population health approach can help local authorities commission care that is catered to every individual need to increase independence and delay future care needs, which in turn improves the quality of life and enables local authorities to better optimise their resources to consistently reach the increasing demand.
