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FEATURE


Change – Make It Count 1


Dot Reeves, chief speech and language therapist at Insane Logic, explores the vital importance of catering to the changing needs of the social care sector within the budgetary and legislative confines of the modern age.


In the coming years some big financial and legislative changes will hit the social care sector and they will be unavoidable.


At Insane Logic, we know it is really important to be ahead of the game. We recently hosted an event with Wayra Ltd. which gathered the key figures in the social care sector to discuss how technology could be used to innovate in times of adversity.


The discussion at the event moved from perceptions of the industry, to examples of innovation working well, to the pitfalls of trying to ‘over- innovate’. While each keynote speaker and panel member brought great diversity of experience and opinion to the fore, there were key areas of overlap in all of their discussions.


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Social care and innovation need a rebrand


This is a bold statement, we know. But social care is one of the least well-defined and understood sectors in the UK. Social care is often put in the same bracket as healthcare, but as Shirley Ayres – co-founder of the Community Care Network – pointed out, the huge difference between healthcare and social care is that the former is incredibly well-funded, where social care limps behind and is hugely underfunded.


In an industry that suffers from understaffing it can be difficult to think about little more than the daily tasks at hand for the carers and managers within the industry. But this will only keep it stagnant.


In any sector where funding is tight and especially in one where people’s


quality of life is affected, innovation can seem like a luxury. There needs to be a shift in thinking towards innovation being a positive, cost- effective solution to improve quality of care and service. It must be seen as a worthwhile use of funds but, more than this, one that is driven by the ambition to improve the lives of those who are cared for, and not by funders or policy makers.


The current care market needs to be disrupted and shaken up.


2


Don’t innovate for the sake of it – and make


sure it works! Innovation can be a tricky beast to harness – it’s all too easy to get carried away with its potential or the novelty of swish new technologies, but it must be grounded to ensure it meets real needs and, of course, a real budget.


www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


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