The future of social care in the UK is linked to the future of the NHS. One cannot progress without the other. So, when the NHS established the Assured Solutions List (ASL) to help shape the future of digital social care, every software supplier in the sector took notice. NHS Assurance is a clear badge of quality and ambition. Nourish Care was the first Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) to join the ASL. A statement of our commitment to both compliance and innovation in care technology.  

The purpose of the ASL is to encourage care providers to digitise. By establishing a trusted baseline of system requirements and providing funding to help providers get started. The requirements for membership of the ASL granted confidence to providers of the capabilities of the system they were using to digitise their processes. NHS Assurance guarantees safety, security and reliability for care providers when choosing their digital partner.  

Since Nourish joined the ASL, it continues to expand in membership and calibre. This year saw an expansion of standards with the introduction of 14 new standards. These standards built upon the baseline of requirements for assured solutions and indicated the coming ambitions for health and social care interoperability. They covered a range of important issues, including the use of data, information sharing, security and integrations.  

You can read about these standards and how Nourish complies with them here. 

It is crucial to use a system that complies with these standards to set yourself up for the future. Most suppliers are still yet to be approved on all 14 standards, you can see how far along they are here. Click on the supplier and navigate to their ‘Standards’ drop down. 

It is clear the NHS have further designs for the ASL and its members. Compliance with the existing standards indicates a supplier is aligned with the future direction of digital social care. When looking to your own future it is important to ask the suppliers you utilise about theirs.  

What connections do they have to the NHS?  
What is their approach to interoperability? 
How committed are they to maintaining their standards of compliance and information security? 

Ensuring alignment with your digital supplier is vital for building a future-proof and secure business. Ensuring your system and service are qualified with NHS assurance. If you are curious about switching your digital system to a new supplier, we have prepared a useful document detailing the process with us. You can view it here.  

If you would like to learn more about how Nourish works with our users to wrap our system around your service, you can read our case studies here. 

One of the clearest requirements of the new 14 standards for NHS Assurance is interoperability. The ability to record, store and share information securely. This is in direct response to the ‘sin of silos’ that plagued health and care providers for decades.  

Along with our adherence to these standards Nourish also champions interoperability through the Nourish Partnership Programme. This initiative reflects our commitment to building solutions across suppliers to best serve care providers and their communities. We are proud to develop social care led solutions alongside suppliers, providers and our wider communities. 

The NHS and social care move together. In September Wes Streeting announced ‘three key shifts’ for the NHS. With recent developments for the ASL, increased focus on compliance and a commitment to interoperability it is obvious this shift is coming to care as well. We previously explored the move from ‘Analogue to Digital’ here. The ability to deliver the other two key shifts, namely ‘sickness to prevention’ and ‘hospital to community’ will largely be defined by the ability of different health and care providers to share their information with each other. The ‘Data Use and Access Bill‘ highlights this focus from the UK government and points to the significance of membership to the ASL for digital social care records as a baseline.

It is clear digital systems will play a huge role in the future of health and care in the UK. Now is the time to make sure you have a partner you trust, understand and enjoy working with.  

Now is the time to talk to Nourish, because things are just getting started. 

Compliance is crucial for home care providers. Evidencing compliance is vital for care providers meeting regulations and ensuring compliance is important for providers delivering quality care. Whatever form your regulator takes, or whatever reforms they implement, it is vital you can tell your care story. Home care compliance is particularly important due to the incredibly personal nature of welcoming a carer into your house. It requires a feat of great trust on the part of your customers. A trust that is sacred to the quality of care you provide and the standard of your reputation. Any home care business looking to grow and secure new customers needs to be able to tell their care story effectively. One that shows your compliance with established regulations and ability to support your community. 

The right digital partner can help you capture your care stories and share them with all your stakeholders. This can go beyond your regulator, to your wider circles of care and community. All relationships are defined by the trust you share with each party. Nourish Care gives care providers the tools to capture all the information you need, understand it on both a micro and macro level, and build case studies that show the quality of your care.  

It is vital you capture the right information to tell your care story from your care delivery. Everyday thousands of small acts of personal empowerment are provided through home care. Don’t sell yourself short by letting them slip through your forms! With the right digital care management system you can rest assured your team is recording everything you need.    

Nourish Care records all the information from your team in real time through our app. This simplifies the process of recording, and subsequently reporting, the care you provide. Helping you to tell an accurate care story to your regulator. Home care compliance is further boosted through the audit trail capabilities of our system. This charts all actions on the Nourish platform, giving you a clear timeline of activities. Which in turn ensures care delivered can be easily evaluated to promote quality as well as the right care being delivered to meet people’s needs, wishes and preferences. 

This is particularly important for home care providers who need to report actual appointment times. We offer a selection of call monitoring options, including devices and a start/stop button on our app. This guarantees a wealth of information for your coordinator. Information including the actual appointment times and the location of the sign in, as well as capturing all of the relevant interactions that occur during the appointment.  

Each of the interactions captured during an appointment constitutes a data point. What they ate, when they ate, what exercises they did, where they went, what they drank, how they felt. Nourish automatically plots these data points for you, weaving a tapestry of information on your care delivery for you to share.  

You can use the information Nourish presents you with to identify trends. Trends that unlock a deeper understanding of your care for everyone involved with your service. Your coordinators will be able to comprehend the nature of your care on a range of levels. This provides valuable oversight whether you are a small family-run business or operating as a franchise!  

Crucially, it makes it simpler for you to be able to chart and detail your care for your inspector. Show how you engage, understand and respond to the needs of your community over time. A comprehensive, and comprehensible, overview of your service sets the scene perfectly for the nature of your care. Allowing you to then guide your inspector through specific examples and case studies to acquaint them with the day-to-day reality of your care. 

Case studies are one of the clearest ways to inform people about your approach to care. We have several of them ourselves we’d love you to check out!  

Care is not a static undertaking. Living the life you want is about having the freedom to pursue your interests. Quality home care supports people to do just that. Quality home care software supports providers to record, review and report their life-changing care. 

Nourish gives you the tools to build case studies of the people utilising your service. These case studies detail on a one-to-one level of how you wrap your service around your clients. Demonstrate the unique way you provide care to your community, illustrating how you involve people with support and their circles of care. Document appointments and demonstrate how you respond to your client’s needs as they evolve and develop thanks to your support.  

Our robust home care app makes involving people in their care decisions simple. Voice-to-text technology and note-taking capabilities means your carers can engage directly with your client’s experiences and record them in Nourish. Showing the person-led approach to care that is championed by regulators across the UK and Ireland.  

Home care compliance is more than a box-ticking exercise. It is an opportunity for you to share the incredible care you provide. Too often the true depth of care goes unacknowledged during an inspection. With the right digital home care software you can ensure that every aspect of your outstanding approach is captured.  

Regulations will continue to grow and adapt with time, just as will your service and the communities you support. That’s why it is vital you can tell your care story, utilising home care software you trust. 

At Nourish we work closely with regulators in the UK and Ireland. Learn more from the highlights of our Q&A webinar with the CQC in September.