Transforming the Future of Adult Social Care Data

THE CHALLENGE:

The Digitising Social Care initiative is a major government programme commissioned by NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care, with the aim of enhancing the digital landscape within the Adult Social Care sector in the UK. The sector faces significant challenges due to budget constraints, workload, and regulatory pressure. Better use of data can unlock valuable insights, empower evidence-based decision-making, and optimize the delivery of care but insufficient standardization and ‘data best-practice’ was holding the sector back. A lack of data sharing and collaboration between care providers contributes to higher costs, a loss of visibility and an inability to provide truly joined up care.

Although some standards existed for social care data, there was no central place to share and publish these standards and there was no consistency in the way organizations communicated about data.

THE SOLUTION:

MetadataWorks partnered with the Digital Social Care Programme to revolutionize data sharing and metadata management in the social care sector. Through a collaborative approach, MetadataWorks developed and implemented a comprehensive metadata management solution tailored to the unique needs of social care providers.

HOW?

• We launched the first national repository for social care data standards, simplifying access to standardized metadata and enabling consistent data practices for improved care delivery.
• We pre-loaded data standards and specifications, enabling social care providers to easily
  adopt industry best practices. This streamlined the adoption process, ensuring consistency, accelerating time to market with pre-populated industry standards, and enhancing the efficiency of service delivery.
• We implemented a terminology server, known as a business glossary, which indexed, enriched, and provided easy access to social care data definitions, types, and relationships. This facilitated data understanding, effective data management, and collaboration
  among care providers.
• Digital Social Care UK benefited from a robust publication environment that facilitated the governance and publication of data standards. This ensured transparency, consistency, and
  adherence to public standards, enhancing data sharing and collaboration among care providers.
• The solution enabled the publication of data standards alongside datasets, ensuring consistency, improved interoperability, and streamlined care processes across the social care sector.
• MetadataWorks' solution empowered data architects to easily disseminate new standards across the organization, promoting efficient adoption, consistency, and data-driven decision-
  making for improved care outcomes.
• Care providers gained the ability to easily list and access available data within datasets, facilitating data discovery, improved utilization, and informed decision-making processes.
• MetadataWorks' solution empowered social care providers to publish and share definitions, types, and relationships of data elements, promoting clarity, consistency, and efficient data
  management throughout the sector, resulting in improved service provision.

THE RESULTS

During the Adult Social Care Terminology project, MetadataWorks conducted a comprehensive 16 week assessment of the social care data landscape during the initial discovery phase. During this phase, 24 standards were analysed 381 glossary definitions were documented, 24,919 data concepts were reviewed and 42,489 mappings were established.

The outcomes of this initial phase have set a new benchmark in data management within thesocial care sector, with Digital Social Care leveraging MetadataWorks’ advanced metadata
 management solution to drive significant transformation.

Key achievements include:

• First-ever data standard for a minimum Adult Social Care Record in the UK was developed
and approved for national rollout by the NHS Data Alliance Partnership Board.

• An assurance portal deployed to validate supplier conformance to these newly
established standards, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and compliance across social
care providers.

• Establishment of a centralized repository for data standards, coupled with sophisticated
metadata management capabilities, has laid a robust foundation for transforming social
care in the UK, paving the way for a future of better-integrated, data-driven services.

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