Agenda item

To receive a report which provides an overview of Kent County Council’s Adult Social Care and Health Being Digital Strategy and a summary of the implementation plan that will allow the vision set out in the strategy to be delivered.

Ms Tidmarsh (Director of Adult Social Care and Health Partnerships) and Ms Letchford (Project Manager) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Ms Tidmarsh and Ms Letchford introduced the report and presented a series of slides which providedan overview of Kent County Council’s Adult Social Care and Health Being Digital Strategy and a summary of the implementation plan.

Ms Tidmarsh and Ms Letchford then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Ms Tidmarsh talked about the importance of strengthening stakeholder and user engagement within the strategy.

b)    Ms Tidmarsh said that Kent County Council had undertaken work with Brighton in relation to digital programmes in assisted living homes and extra care housing and were exploring ways to develop extra care and the current technical digital infrastructure. She talked about intergenerational work and said that pilots had taken place recently which allowed school children to engage with older people and teach them how to use technology.

c)    Ms Tidmarsh said that the Digital Strategy had been developed to set out the strategic direction for, and help to enable the delivery of, digital innovation and technology to transform and support the new adult social care operating models. She added that work was being undertaken to develop Kent and Medway care records to allow both Kent and Medway to jointly-work with the NHS and access all service user’s data. She talked about the locally-supported apps that were being developed to allow individual’s access to useful healthcare links.

d)    Ms Tidmarsh confirmed that face-to-face conversations with individual’s would not be replaced by technology.

e)    Ms Southern talked about the technology and technology training that Kent County Council provided to its staff and Members and said that it was important that users felt confident and comfortable when using the technology.

f)     Ms Tidmarsh said that the Kent Housing Group had launched a new working group which scrutinised housing, health and social care and considered future accommodation and planning accommodation options.

g)    Ms Tidmarsh referred to the implications that the Digital Strategy contract could carry and confirmed that once the implications were better known, a further report on the overall strategy and direction of travel of the contract would be submitted to a future Cabinet Committee meeting.

h)    Ms Tidmarsh confirmed that the technology that Kent County Council provided to service users was rented and therefore it could easily be improved.

i)     Ms Tidmarsh said that upcoming exhibition dates and would be circulated to Members of the Committee outside of the meeting.

j)     Mr Gibbens reassured Members of the Committee that private briefing sessions could be held for Members to attend if they had specific concerns in relation to the Digital Strategy contract.

2.          RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health, to

a)    approve the Adult Social Care and Health Being Digital Strategy 2019-2021 and the high-level implementation plan;

b)    delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health, or other nominated officer, to undertake the necessary actions to implement the decision; and

c)    note that an update will be presented to the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee in September 2019 with a revised implementation plan and details on the financial implications including savings and investment,

be endorsed.