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.
Problems with public sector tendering can be difficult to manage. Digitally transforming processes and investing in brokerage and commissioning software is a good way to overcome these problems, but it can be challenging to know what software is best for your local authority.
If you are a Director, Care Commissioner, Social Worker, or work within the care commissioning cycle in the UK then you will already know the social care challenges have been exacerbated by the pandemic, cost-of-living crisis, and staff shortages. This has made it very difficult for some local authorities to meet demand and commission the care and support needed.
It is not just social care needs that have risen dramatically, local authorities have also seen that housing needs have increased too. With many individuals seeking social or temporary housing, the long waiting lists leave vulnerable people living in unsafe conditions, worsening their health and wellbeing, and increasing their reliance on more health and social care support.
So how are local authorities overcoming these issues? What options are available and what is the difference between brokerage and commissioning software?
Access Adam Care Commissioning is dedicated to empowering local authorities across the UK to optimise their service delivery. Recognizing the increased new responsibilities of our English colleagues, we are committed to ensuring their readiness for the new CQC inspections. In adhering to all applicable legislation and guidance, we facilitate the seamless adaptation of support services to meet evolving demands.
By the end of this article, you will be able to identify the differences between commissioning and brokerage software and the best way these tools can be used to identify which solution is best for your local authority.
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.
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.
Digital procurement comes in a range of forms that are used consistently across the public sector. However, local Authorities can experience numerous challenges when trying to implement successful digital procurement in their local community.
More and more local authorities are moving towards e procurement instead of sticking with traditional methods of procurement. But, what is digital procurement? Why is it important and what are the benefits for the public sector?
At the Access Group we are aware of the varied challenges local authorities currently face and how important it is to overcome them to provide the best services possible for residents. We know that going digital helps to streamline and shorten processing time and how that provides better care and support quicker.
With the NHS aiming for the majority of health and social care services to have digital foundations in place by March 2025 we know the stages of digitally transforming processes and the challenges that can arise, as well as the benefits your local authority can experience once your processes are digitalised.
This article will explain all there is to know about digital procurement and how it can help local authorities overcome the challenges they are facing when commissioning the health and support services their community needs whether its compliance, quality assurance, or managing costs and resources.
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.
Individual Service Funds and Direct Payments have gained considerable attention in the last few years. But, what do each mean? How do they work? Does one work better than the other? Or do they work differently depending on the individual care need?
With the most recent Care Act publishing guidance on how best to use both it can be difficult deciding which is best for you and your local community.
Whether you are an individual with a disability, a family member, caregiver, or a professional in the social care sector, delivering person-centred care that is adaptable to every individual’s care needs is essential to help encourage independence, prolong future care needs, and build a support system which truly matches every care need across a local authority.
At The Access Group we know and understand the importance of co-production with a patient or individual and understand how it is crucial that they have a choice over their health and support plans.
This article will review what difference between Individual Service Funds and Direct Payments are, how they work, the pros and cons of each, as well as how best to overcome the barriers that may arise when you try to decide which personal budget is best for you.
If you work in an Integrated Care Board (ICB)an Integrated Care System (ICS) wanting to find out how to manage Continuing Healthcare (CHC) more effectively, you are probably interested in what software is available to help you manage that.
You may already be aware of some of the platforms currently available including BroadCare software and Access Adam Care Commissioning software (previously known as adam htt). This article will review both highlighting how each software works, the pros and cons, and how they can be used to mitigate and manage risks for every ICB and continuing healthcare department to help commission, broker and deliver the best person-centred care possible.
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.
