Norman Lamb to reform ‘outdated’ social care data collection process

Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb has announced plans to shake up the way social care data is collected from local authorities.
On Friday he revealed an overhaul of the system, which will see the Department of Health give councils an extra £11.8m of funding for implementation.

Under the new plans, the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) will collect and publish the data on an annual basis. It is hoped the statistics will help to improve social care standards by looking at the results achieved by people who use care and support services, rather than counting activities and processes.

The move follows a review led by the HSCIC in 2010, where the organisation worked closely with local authorities to consider the types of data councils would need in order to understand how well they are doing in providing “integrated, personalised and responsive” care and support.

Following his announcement, Mr Lamb said: “The data we currently collect from local authorities about adult social care is outdated and not kept pace with the transformation into the new care and support system.

“The new data will help us to see how each council is performing in delivering better results for people in local communities who use care. This will give councils the information they need to deliver care and support that is integrated, personalised and responsive.”