Funding to bring Kirklees social care into the digital age

This second successful bid follows on from £30,000 funding for the discovery phase.

Awarded last year, the funding was used to investigate challenges for social care service users and how these could be addressed through digital technology.

The feedback and insights gathered from this phase led to the development of an early prototype of a self-service care account.

The £120,000 funding for the implementation phase will enable the prototype to be created into a working online self-service account giving service users access to their information 24/7 and ultimately more control.

This will then be piloted with service users and carers in Kirklees later this year as people have gained confidence in recent weeks with online facilities to support social distancing and to make better use of their time and resources.

Councillor Musarrat Khan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care said: “This is an exciting development for Kirklees that will offer more choice and control for our users and carers. It will enable social carers to focus more of their time on supporting people with their more complex social care and support needs.

“The design of the care account - delivered collaboratively between the council’s IT Digital Design and Adult Social Care teams and our users and carers - will add real value to the sector and push boundaries of digital innovation for social care across the country.”