Overcoming the social care data barrier

The divide between health and social care information leads to significant capacity delays, writes Barry Frostick, chief digital and information officer at Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System 

For as long as shared care records (ShCR) have existed, one element has remained stubbornly hard to deliver – integrating social care data in a way that genuinely supports clinical decision-making.

National reports from the ‘Roadmap for better adult social care’ through to the NHS 10 year health plan all point to the same issue: without integrated social care data, safe discharge and community-based care simply can’t work.

And the reality on the ground reflects this.

The divide between health and social care information slows patient flow, leads to repeat assessments and readmissions, and is estimated to cost the NHS around £2bn a year, with a significant share linked to social care capacity delays.

In Mid and South Essex, we’ve started to close that gap and are already seeing real progress. Adult social care data from Essex County Council’s case management system is fully integrated into our ShCR.

It means health and social care teams finally have a consistent, real-time view of the people they’re jointly responsible for.

Closing the information gap

Now, when a health and social care professional looks up a patient in the ShCR  – which we launched last year – they can see whether care packages and provisions are already in place, whether a social worker is involved, and what support is being delivered at home.

Without integrated social care data, safe discharge and community-based care simply can’t work

Likewise, social care teams can view real-time health information that would previously have required phone calls and emails to confirm.

More than 1,100 social care professionals across Essex County Council, Southend City Council and Thurrock Council now use the ShCR in routine practice, and the feedback has been consistently positive.

Essex Council reports an average 37 minutes saved per use, while Thurrock Council estimates around 422 hours saved each year. Continuing Healthcare teams have recorded 402 hours of annual savings and Southend City Council has halved multidisciplinary meetings, freeing more than 200 hours a year.

We’ve calculated the time saving benefits and reduction in duplication of efforts from implementing the ShCR to equate to £3.8 million in annual efficiencies for the local NHS and councils, with the integration of social care data being a contributing factor.

Hard yards on governance and culture

Social care has never had the same level of interoperability as health, and most systems were not built to share information.

We addressed the technical side through open standards like FHIR APIs. However, the bigger challenge was cultural.

Data sharing meant rethinking consent, language and long-held expectations about what information could be shared.

Terms like ‘clinical’ or ‘patient’ make perfect sense to health professionals but can alienate social care colleagues

We’ve had to be very deliberate about it. Our governance structure now embeds collaboration by design – leadership roles, such as workstream leads, are shared between health and social care organisations, and our quorum reflects that balance.

It’s been essential to build shared accountability into the way we work, not bolt it on later.

We’ve also learned to revise the language. Terms like ‘clinical’ or ‘patient’ make perfect sense to health professionals but can alienate social care colleagues, who think in terms of ‘residents’, ‘families’ and ‘professionals’.

Getting it right has helped build trust and shared purpose across teams that historically operated in different worlds.

Making data useful, not just available

We all know that integration for its own sake doesn’t improve care. By making the data useful, and not just available, hospital teams can now check whether care packages are in place before discharge, saving unnecessary delays and reducing avoidable readmissions.

Community nurses can see whether someone is already known to social care and coordinate support accordingly. Social workers, in turn, can see recent clinical notes and anticipate where a patient might need more help.

The single patient record will only succeed if regions have already solved the fundamentals

To put this into context, a vulnerable patient in crisis was quickly reconnected with urgent mental health services after staff used the ShCR to access their history across community services – a connection that might otherwise have been missed.

In another case, an ambulance dispatcher was able to reach the next of kin information via the ShCR in a critical moment, directly contributing to a lifesaving intervention.

National policy in practice

Although the national vision for the single patient record (SPR) is still unclear, the direction of travel points to a federated, multi-vendor model, which aligns strongly with the role of ShCR.

And the SPR will only succeed if regions have already solved the fundamentals: common standards, consistent IG, trusted governance, and data models shaped around the realities of local care pathways.

Therefore, our ShCR isn’t a stop-gap. It’s a strategic data asset that positions the region for the next phase of national reform, giving neighbourhood teams the tools they need to operate across organisational boundaries.