Alongside the ever-increasingly digital nature of the Social Care sector and its processes, Person Centred Care has grown in prevalence and practice, emerging as a leading method and means of care planning. Join us for this blog as we explore the features that Care Providers need to look out for and consider when purchasing person centred software for care planning.
Monitor, Record, Track, and Report on Digital Social Care Records
Person centred care, in short, refers to care that is designed, and likewise delivered, with the person supported at its core, enabling them to feel truly engaged with and involved in their own care planning. Plans that align with the principles of person centred care are no longer made for service users, rather, they are “co-designed” with them, enabling service users to be actively engaged with their care planning and daily lives. You can learn about Person-Centred-Care and Planning in more detail by clicking here!
To facilitate impactful, meaningful person centred care, all records associated with the person’s care and support must be able to be tracked and kept up to date at all times. Doing so with paper-based records not only requires the use of vast volumes of paper each and every day, which creates not only waste, but also logistical headaches, as the stacks of paper required would add up over time, and more than likely lead to lost documents and, with that, loss of records and inaccurate information as a result, ultimately resulting in a compromised quality of care and general organisation. Of course, the costs of using a paper-based system can also be significant, both in terms of actual financial cost, but also the space required for storing documentation, both of which are effectively eliminated by going digital.
For Care Providers to truly feel enabled and driven to fulfill their person centred ethos and values, they require a person centred care software which can accurately capture care and support related data for each individual service user in real time. As a cloud-based web application, iplanit saves any changes or additions that you make within your system as and when you press save, ensuring that important information needed by your organisation is not lost. Any information saved will be immediately viewable by relevant colleagues, eliminating any frustrating and inhibitive work delays.
Control of Access to Service User’s Information
The nature of information shared within Social Care, similar to Healthcare, is of a highly sensitive nature, and must only be made available to those with the necessary permissions and authorisation to view it. Paper-based records can represent a challenge within this area, as there is always the possibility for paper documents to be lost, or even stolen, both of which could of course lead to people’s personal information falling into the wrong hands.
iplanit allows you to decide exactly who can access what information, ensuring that your staff can only access data that is relevant to them and their support work. Through iplanit, you can also maintain an overview of all access and actions carried out by people within iplanit, helping you to maintain an organisation-wide overview of all that goes on within your organisation’s iplanit system, ensuring that accountability and appropriate behaviour is upheld at all times.
Security and Your Organisation’s Information
As is the case with any software product, the security credentials of that given product should be considered and investigated before making any purchasing decision. iplanit is ISO27001 certified, ensuring that your service user information and data are completely secure. Additionally, as all information is securely accessed in controlled central server locations, there is no risk of your organization’s sensitive information getting lost or stolen on portable computing devices, ensuring you piece of mind when it comes to data security.
Service User Accessibility
A core component of person centred care is of course the active involvement of the service user in their own care planning, and the software used to deliver and record an organisation’s care planning is integral to this. Some digital care planning products available within the sector allow for the service user themselves to login and use the available system, oftentimes with a more accessible, easy-to-navigate interface which enables them to view the care planning information that is relevant and of interest to them.
iplanit’s Person Portal paves the way for an accessible service user experience which enables supported people to access and engage with their own plans through the use of many features, including the calendar, direct messaging options, the ability to upload and access photos, videos and sounds, among others.
Within the Person Portal, there are numerous accessibility options to cater to the individual service user’s own needs, including the ability to enable varying text sizes, a selection of interface colour settings, as well as a screen-reader to help aid those may not be able to read or have difficulty doing so. All of these features, and more, help to enable service users to view the care planning information that is relevant and of interest to them, helping them to feel more in control of their lives, and better equipped to strive to achieve the outcomes that they have set for themselves.
Access for the Service User’s Circle of Support
The support of our friends and family is important to everyone’s endeavors in life, not just for individual service users who are being supported. It can oftentimes be challenging for the friends and families of supported individuals to feel as though they are close to the lives of the person that they care for and love, as they may not be privy to information related to their daily lives.
iplanit enables friends and families to feel closer to the person supported, thanks to the Person Portal. Through the Person Portal, nominated members of the service user’s Circle of Support can access information pertaining to the service user’s care and support, who they themselves decide what types of information that they would like to share with their Circle of Support.
Possessing the ability to gain an insight into the daily life of a service user allows the members of their Circle of Support to develop a greater appreciation and understanding of the life of the person supported, in turn allowing for people’s relationship to the person supported to benefit from a greater level of understanding, resulting in better, more cohesive relationships to be developed.
Usability of the Software
The nature of the Social Sector means that staff can oftentimes vacate their roles, with turnover rates commonly observed as being higher than the national average across other sectors. For example, in the UK, the staff turnover rate in Social Care is said to stand at about 31%. Given the frequency with which new staff members often come onboard, it is important to consider the “learnability” of a person-centred-software solution when preparing to invest in such a system.
Even though ease of use and intuitive workflows have been integral to iplanit design and development from the very start, Aspirico are aware of the challenges that may arise in any organisation during the course of any digital transformation project. Keeping this in mind, Aspirico has in place multiple support options to ensure that when you are implementing iplanit to support your person centred care service delivery, the people, the staff, management and stakeholders benefit. You can see iplanit in use with our friends over at Oaklea Trust by following this link!
Ease of Transition from Paper-Based-Records
Despite the Care Sector becoming increasingly digitised in recent years, some Providers are yet to make the switch to a digital system at all. Oftentimes, Providers may still be operating their services entirely in an analogue manner, using paper to record all elements of their care planning, including service delivery. Switching from one work method or process to another, no matter the scale of that change, can be challenging across all industries. Changing from using paper-based records to a digital means of care planning is no different, and presents its own challenges to Providers.
One important means of ensuring an easy and frictionless transition to a new care planning software for Providers is the onboarding process and training made available to them. Before committing to purchasing a care management and planning software solution, you should enquire about the quality of training resources and supports available during and after the rollout of your new digital system.
Every iplanit project is supported by our team of experts with decades of frontline Social Care experience between them, who will be there to assist you with any questions you may have, both during and after the initial rollout of your iplanit system. Additionally, the iplanit Learning Centre (ILC) has been developed to help you and your staff maintain and improve upon your iplanit skills, ensuring that you will never be without the necessary resources to strengthen your iplanit expertise.
Of course, support is available directly from us here at Aspirico. You can contact our support desk directly by email, support@aspirico.com !
Accessible across Devices
Working within Social Care is oftentimes busy and even chaotic, with staff constantly being on the go to deliver vital support activities to Service Users throughout the day. The difficulties of being on the move so much are only exacerbated by having to carry documentation to log support activities and notes, which can be both heavy and easily losable, resulting in later data duplication, and potentially inaccurate information being entered as result of having to recall information from hours before.
iplanit‘s web-native nature means that it can be used across a variety of devices, including PCs/Laptops, Mobile Phones and Tablets/iPads, adapting to each device’s screen thanks to its adaptive display, meaning that it remains accessible and easy-to-use no matter the situation support staff may find themselves in.
Being able to access iplanit on the go also ensures that staff can log important information right when they need to, ensuring that information does not go unaccounted for, while also minimizing the risk of inaccurate information being entered long after a given activity or event had taken place. Of course, staff’s physical burden is far lessened using iplanit, given that paper documents no longer need to be heaved around while on shift.
Flexibility in Product Offering
Flexibility is an important trait of any system implemented in any workplace, regardless of industry. Within Social Care, the activities and services undertaken by a given Provider may differ from one organisation to the next, depending on whether or not that organisation focuses on providing services for Learning Disabilities, Mental Health, Domiciliary Care etc.
With iplanit, you can choose to add on modules from our range of optional modules to the core modules that you reserve as standard at any time, whether that be when your iplanit journey begins, or later down the line after your initial rollout. You can learn more about our range of modules here.
Discover more about iplanit – The Person Centred Software Pioneer
Aspirico has been a pioneer in the area of care management and person centred software since our foundation in 2006. iplanit is the original within the person centred software space, having initially launched with Version 1 in 2010, with our latest Version 7 release coming soon, which will offer enhanced and new features to help Providers around the world to deliver better care!
While Social Care, and indeed the world, may have changed so much within the last decade or so, one thing has remained constant here at Aspirico; our dedication to delivering the most person centred care software to Care Providers and the people that they support.
iplanit has been built around the person supported since its inception. Everything that we do, and with that, everything that iplanit does, is and will continue to be built around the person supported. Our commitment to providing the most person centred software is absolute, and we look forward to continuing to enable service users to achieve life’s potential for many years to come.
To learn more about the most person centred care software available on the market, book an iplanit demo using the form below today! You can contact us by emailing – enquiry@aspirico.com . Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn too to keep up with all things Aspirico and Social Care!
