Letters to Louise 2 of 6
Dear Louise,
In this my second letter to you, I promised to focus on the importance of data, especially important when you are trying to plan ahead, as I know you are keen to do. Looking ahead, ideally 20 years, is essential to prevent us ever being in this unhappy position again.
I promised to let you know the next steps with David’s cancelled surgery. The good news is that he now has a new date for 10th April. Four and a half months wait has eaten badly into his confidence & mobility but we are now hopeful again. I’ll keep you in touch with progress of course.
Back to the data. The NHS is so rich in it, that it’s been described as the new oil. Recent events show us how vital oil is our economy but then again so were all these older people who are now dependent on us for their care. Social care, as I’m sure you have discovered by now, is also quite rich in data. What is even more daft is that the two vital sources of data, which belong after all to the people either can’t or won’t talk to each other. It’s perfectly possible to make them of course, so may I suggest that understanding the barriers could lead to asking government how they might be addressed. This feels like an area where progress could be made relatively quickly. The NHS has just completed the Single Patient Record for the NHS, excellent more unified patient records but this does not as yet include social care data. If you ask why not and why it wasn’t factored in from the beginning, you could then get an interesting answer and possible solution. This separation of activity and spend on health and social care continues to make progress hard. Where better to start? Talking of better, I am sure you will be aware of the Better Care Fund? It is a brilliant opportunity to bring together funding activities across health and social care on the front line which could easily be extended.
When I worked in the private sector on a predictive analytics programme, we designed an interactive dashboard joining up the activity and cost of interventions for the Better Care Fund (BCF) on frail older people’s falls and hospital admissions. Using savings on preventing falls and subsequent hospital admissions stays in the too difficult box because the money sits in different pots. We not only have practitioners not talking across the health and social care divide but their data and money not talking too.
Meanwhile, your announcements on creating a Dementia Zar, National Safeguarding Board for Adults and social care passport for people with Motor Neurone disease (MHD)are very welcome. However, for David and his friends on health and social care waiting lists, there may also be scope for more immediate practical steps. Perhaps a little sticking plaster, could be applied to integrating data?
Julia Ross , former nurse, social worker and Director of Social Services in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is co-author of When People Die, Call the Social (2022) and her first novel, The Laughing Robot ( 2024). She is currently Chair of BASW UK and while she writes this in her capacity as an individual and author, drawing on her professional experiences, the views here are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official position of BASW UK.