Selecting the right system for digital care records

Choosing a system for digital social care records will be an essential part of your digital transformation journey, as it will become the key tool for your day-to-day management of care.

Don’t try and do everything in one go. Do it in steps and don’t try and make the process overly complicated. Sometimes, just starting will get you there quicker.

It's important that you get your staff involved in deciding which digital care system to buy, as they will be the ones using the system. The focus should be on selecting a supplier who understands your organisation. The main aim will be to build a partnership with the company that provides the digital care system.

Do some research on the most popular system for digital social care records – look at what other care providers are using and make sure they are on the Assured Supplier list.

What is the NHS Transformation Directorate's Assured Supplier List?

The NHS Transformation Directorate has worked with care providers and digital social care record suppliers to create an Assured Supplier List – this is a list of software suppliers who have passed a rigorous selection criteria to ensure they can deliver against national specifications, that their solution meets core capabilities and that their financial position is stable.

If you purchase a system from this list, you can be confident that they have been assured at the highest level. Person Centred Software has been accredited by the NHS Transformation Directorate to be on the assured supplier list.

The Assured Supplier list was created by the NHS Transformation Directorate in conjunction with CASPA (The care software providers association) and it audits the key functionality needed with a digital social care system.

The Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) has been designed to support care providers make the switch to digital social care records quickly and easily by giving them access to a list of quality-assured, accredited suppliers. The adoption of digital social care records will play an essential role in joining up a person’s care across both social care and the NHS, with real-time information being shared across commissioners and regulators.

The accredited supplier list presents a marketplace where social care providers can be reassured their preferred digital solution has met both functional requirements and standards, helping to remove a lot of the stress from purchasing a digital social care record system. The NHS ensures Person Centred software's digital social care record system is a good piece of software to use.