Surge in digital care records transforming case management

The rapid shift to digital social care records (DSCRs) is transforming frontline care and reshaping how local authorities manage casework, information flows and workforce productivity, according to DHSC. 

Newly published figures show that four in five care providers now use DSCRs, supporting almost 90 per cent of people who require care and saving an estimated 30 million administrative hours each year.

The Department of Health and Social Care says DSCRs are delivering safer, more responsive care by replacing fragmented paper processes with real-time information accessible to authorised professionals across care settings. The technology is central to the government’s ambition to develop a single patient record under the 10-Year Health Plan. Designed to national security standards, the single patient record will bring together a person’s medical history, care needs, medications and risk information into one secure view.

Early results of the shift to digital care records include: 

• Care plans that previously took a week to complete and approve can now be finished in three days. 
• Reviews that previously required four hours can be done in around 30 minutes. 
• Staff no longer rely on handwritten notes or repeated conversations to build a picture of someone’s needs. 
• Returning at least 20 minutes per care worker per shift, freeing up time for direct support.

For local authorities, the growing use of DSCRs is accelerating expectations for joined up case management. Councils play a central role in commissioning, safeguarding and coordinating multi agency care, and the move to digital records introduces both opportunities such as the ability for social care staff to view limited GP information through GP Connect – including medications, allergies, test results and recent encounters.

Jules Hunt, interim Director General for Technology, Digital and Data at DHSC, said the shift to digital is “freeing up staff from burdensome bureaucracy,” and helping drive care from hospital into the community. “The change across health and social care to be digital by default is already leading to better patient care, experience and efficiency.”