Social care data in HSCIC sights

The Health and Social Care Information Centre is looking at automating extractions of adult social care data from council IT systems and linking it with other healthcare data.

The latest information centre board papers say it has been commissioned by the Department of Health Social Care Directorate to: “undertake a project to investigate the feasibility of automating the extract of data from adult social care information systems”.

The minutes say the project will take forward recommendations in the DH information strategy, The Power of Information, published in 2012.

This built on the government’s open data agenda around mobilising and linking health and social care data to improve and redesign services.

The strategy also outlined plans to develop integrated health and social care records and to provide patient access, “once technology permits”.

The new project will, “take into account the need to manage the administrative burden associated with national data collections as well as the wider view of the impact of using client level data and linking data across healthcare, public health and social care”, the minutes say.

The DH has set aside £750k within this financial year to fund the project, which will be overseen by the Outcomes and Information Development Board , jointly chaired by the DH and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.

The minutes add that it will be important in, “reinforcing the HSCIC’s position at the centre of initiatives to break down the barriers which prevent meaningful data flows across organisational boundaries”.

An HSCIC report published last July, ‘The Quality of Nationally Submitted Health and Social Care Data, England 2012’, revealed that seven local authorities submitted some adult social care returns with 15-20% of data incomplete and two councils submitted a return with more than 20% missing.