TEC provider joins new commission exploring role of assistive tech in social care
Tunstall Healthcare has announced its involvement and sponsorship of the newly launched ADASS (Association of Directors of Adult Social Services) and TEC Services Association (TSA) joint commission into how assistive technology can support the social care sector.
Exploring the role of technology in a reformed social care system, the commission will consider how assistive technology services could be better commissioned across social care to provide more joined-up care, centred around the individual.
In March 2021, key findings from the commission will be presented to government, recommending how to scale up and mainstream the use of everyday assistive devices and explaining how such solutions facilitate independent living.
The commission will create a powerhouse of influential figures in adult social care, health and housing, including local authority directors of adult social services, local authority chief executives, care and housing bodies, and leaders from NHSX, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Local Government Association (LGA), plus leading TEC suppliers.
Tunstall Healthcare has invested heavily in the development of a range of technology solutions which can support vulnerable people in their community, enabling early interventions to avoid the need for more complex care.
Gordon Sutherland, CEO of Tunstall Healthcare, said: “Technology has a key role to play in increasing the capacity of our health and social care services, and enabling flexibility in the way care is delivered. This will make care more proactive and predictive, and help to address future challenges.
“Technology is an enabler and to avoid the devastating effects seen during COVID-19 we must create more resilience within the system. Services need to understand the benefits of technology and must investigate how we can meet surges in demand and protect the population.”
ADASS and TSA have a shared ambition to create a roadmap for improving social care through better access to, and commissioning of, digital solutions, and for the widespread normalisation of assistive technology within health and social care services/provision.
The commission will consider the barriers and enablers to greater technology adoption, and look at ways to galvanise social care commissioners and policy makers to use technology more readily and rapidly in order to solve common challenges around care, health and housing.
The aim of the commission’s report is to present a series of clear, tangible recommendations to central and local government on how to scale up and mainstream the use of everyday devices, data insights and specialist technology to extend people’s healthy lifespans and enrich their lives.
Gordon continued: “I’m looking forward to contributing to the report for the government with partners on the commission by sharing knowledge and expertise to ensure changes are made now to safeguard the future.
“We’ll be considering how care and support services and new technology can be combined to provide more preventive, responsive support to people and meet future needs and expectations, alongside shaping the debate on the role technology plays in delivering care and supporting integration at a personal, place and system level.”
The Commission’s report will launch at TSA’s International Technology Enabled Care Conference on 23 March 2021.
In September 2020, Public Policy Projects and Tunstall Healthcare published a report, which called for the UK health and care system to embrace the rapid implementation of digital technology seen over the course of the coronavirus pandemic and speed up the uptake of TECS across the system.