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Social care data overhauled to improve care

Social care data overhauled to improve care
31 July 2013



Local authorities have been given more than £11 million to overhaul the way that social care data is collected, the government has announced. 
The data will be published annually by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) with the aim of improving the way that care and support is measured, it was announced. 
The government believes the statistics will improve standards by looking at the results rather than counting processes. 

Local authorities have been given more than £11 million to overhaul the way that social care data is collected, the government has announced. 
The data will be published annually by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) with the aim of improving the way that care and support is measured, it was announced. 
The government believes the statistics will improve standards by looking at the results rather than counting processes. 
The announcement comes just weeks after Sir Bruce Keogh’s review into hospital mortality rates revealed that commissioners and local authorities are not using data to its fullest extent.
Data should be used to improve services, rather than justify the current situation, he argued. 
Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb said: “The new data will help us to see how each council is performing in delivering better results for people in local communities who use care. 
“This will give councils the information they need to deliver care and support that is integrated, personalised and responsive.”
A new safeguarding collection will be brought in. The existing social care activity and finance collections will be replaced.
Each local authority will receive money to cover costs of moving to the new data collection system, which forms part of wider work to transform the care and support system to be more integrated.

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