Social Care Digital Innovation Programme 2019-21

Discovery phase 2019

We were one of 12 councils awarded £30,000 in funding from the Local Government Association, as part of the Social Care Digital Innovation Programme 2019-21, to investigate:- How we might enable service users and carers to access information about their care services to give them more control.

Discovery methods

Between April and October 2019, with the funding we delivered a detailed engagement with service users and carers in Kirklees. We asked people to tell us their experiences of accessing information about their adult social care services or the services of someone they care for.

We used interviews, surveys and workshops in order to find out:

• what information and services our service users and carers need to access?
• what people's current experience is, specifically barriers or frustrations and where there is opportunity for improving user experiences?
• what benefits and barriers digital solutions or services could bring to service users and carers, including where assisted digital services might be useful?

Discovery findings

Discovery Review findings report

Easy Read Discovery Review findings report

Watch the highlight video

We have also produced a brief video to highlight the findings from our discovery:

Implementation phase 2020

Following the successful discovery phase Kirklees is one of the six councils awarded a further £120,000 to implement an online Adult Social Care Account using the findings from the discovery phase.

What happens next

We plan to take forward a care account prototype, to develop it into a working product in collaboration with service users and carers. We are looking to deliver a solution which would meet the user needs identified in the discovery phase and give people more visibility and control of their adult social care services.

Prototype testing

This will take place from April until September 2020

User testing will take place every three weeks as a new feature for the product is developed. Each new feature (prototype) is tested by you, then from our findings we will develop the working product and test it again. This can be done in your own home (remotely) via a link we would email to you. You will need access to either a laptop, computer, iPad or smartphone and have an internet connection.

Why prototype?

• They are low-cost to build
• We can test small elements instead of a larger product
• We learn earlier on in the process what may or may not work
• Your feedback can be built into new features and then tested again
• We can measure it to see if it meets the needs identified in the discovery phase

Pilot program

This will take place from September to November 2020.

This is also called a feasibility study or experiment trial, is a small-scale short-term experiment that will help us learn how a large-scale project might work in practice.

Why pilot?

• Assess true performance of the new system in a controlled-but-live experiment
• Ensure the new system meets the requirements before rolling out to all service users and carers
• Identify any additional improvements before the official launch

How to get involved

Working with our service users and carers (co-production) is key to the success of this project which is why we are looking for adult social care users and carers to become part of the user testing group and pilot the care account.

This can be done in your own home (remotely) via a link we would email to you. You will need access to either a laptop, computer, iPad or smartphone and have an internet connection.

Press releases

• Kirklees Together - programme update - April 2020
• Kirklees Together - programme update - November 2019
• Kirklees Together - Tell us your experience of accessing information about your adult social care services - August 2019

Progress reports

• LGA Discovery Report January 2020
• Kirklees progress report - July 2019
• Kirklees discovery phase case study - November 2019