In a follow up to her debut blog post on the development of adult social care information for use by NHS England, government departments, universities and other organisations, Katharine Robbins, Social Care Programme Manager at the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), reports on the latest milestone reached in data collection.
In May this year, local authorities submitted the first activity data to take account of the new national data requirements arising from the zero based review.
The HSCIC has revised its publication schedule to produce more timely final data and will publish this new activity information in October 2015. This has been a significant task at a time of competing priorities, resource constraints and IT challenges. However, all 152 councils with adult social services responsibility submitted their first returns in the new format.
These returns on short and long term support (SALT) replace the old ‘RAP’ and ‘ASC-CAR’ activity returns. SALT provides a clearer picture of the social care journey for clients and carers, including the outcomes of reablement and other short term services to maximise independence. The adult social care finance returns (ASC-FR) will arrive by mid-July, and the safeguarding adults return (SAR) contains new information this year to align with other returns.
The data draws on the new equalities and classifications framework for the first time. This shows information on Primary Support Reason, and at this stage, information on a limited range of health conditions. While this data may have limitations in its first year, it will tell us more about the social care landscape than has been known previously. HSCIC continues to work closely with local authorities and other organisations to support them with the new collections and look at developments for future years.
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2 comments
Comment by Stephen Barraclough posted on
Pardon my cynicism, but as an elderly person with actual need of the Social Services depts. in order to manage my life & health issues, I wonder if the above - additional form-filling and data provision to this and other Government services - is possibly why they no longer have the staff-hours available to actually PROVIDE US to the same extent as heretofore with the support we had, and still need?
Comment by Neil Stillwell posted on
I fully concur with this sentiment. Maximum coverage for minimum outlay. The real Tory ethic.