RCPA Digital Bulletin
Latest news from our Project Delivery Officer, Dan Plummer:
The Department for Health and Social Care has recently published “The State of Cyber Security in Adult Social Care.”
The report highlights that social care is a diverse sector that is rising to the challenges posed by cyber security threats. However, there is still significant work to be done to ensure that care providers fully understand cyber threats and how to effectively report and respond to them. While awareness of cyber threats is high, this does not always translate into embedded practices.
The report also highlights that a small number of care providers are not actively addressing cyber security. Around 17% have no procedures in place to measure threats, or complete the DSPT, or assign dedicated staff to handle cyber security.
Cyber-attacks are likely being underreported. Research found that only 33% of providers reported experiencing a cyber incident in the last three years—a number likely influenced by underreporting. The report says that care providers are using various measures to identify cyber security risks, but a significant proportion still lack essential cyber security elements, including a business continuity plan (36%), formal cyber security policies (31%), and a cyber incident response plan (32%).
Training for frontline staff was found to be high, but some providers were not entirely confident in staff ability to fully take in online training and felt it is seen as a “tick-box” exercise. This is reinforced by providers reporting poor practices, with one-third of providers still engaging in risky behaviours such as sharing work devices (39%), using personal devices for work (33%), or sharing email addresses (30%).
There is a major push for the sector to become more digitally mature. This shift has led to increased use of a wide variety of third-party services, which offer additional security features such as cloud backups and multi-factor authentication. However, reliance on third party software presents risks, as a cyber-attack on a critical piece of software could impact a large number of social care providers.
The report suggests that in-person cyber security support is more beneficial than purely online resources. While compliance with the DSPT has reached 78%, the research found little difference between providers who completed the DSPT at “standards met,” “standards exceeded,” or did not complete it at all. However, care providers who have engaged with the Better Security, Better Care (BSBC) programme demonstrated consistently better practices.
Cyber security remains a difficult challenge for care providers who face increasing pressures in the adult care industry. By not allowing for adequate time and resources for becoming more resilient in cyber security risks huge financial loss and long periods of digital systems being offline.
The full report can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-state-of-cyber-security-in-adult-social-care
‘Somerset Innovation: Future Technologies for Enabling Health & Care’ Event
Dan attended this event last week at the Firepool Centre for Digital Innovation in Taunton. The event covered technology in health and social care. While there was a heavy focus on healthcare, good conversations and insights about how social care interacts with our colleagues in health were had. The challenges faced by social care in the digital landscape were also discussed.
The day included the following:
Professor Richard Luxton from University of the West of England (UWE) and co-founder of the Institute of Bio-Sensing Technology
Richard spoke about what the future of technology enabled healthcare can look like. His presentation started with a discussion about internet usage among the various age groups and genders, with the potential risks of older people being less digitally mature. Internet usage for older people is lower than other age groups, with women being less connected. However, connectivity has increased significantly between 2011 and 2018.
Richard spoke about both monitoring and assistive technology. Assistive technology such as communication support, social technology, and devices to help control heating and lighting are already available and used in a variety of settings. Monitoring technology is an area that is having a large impact on how healthcare is delivered, devices such as Fitbits already provide a large number of people with health data. For more health dedicated technology Richard highlighted, digital and infrared thermometers, blood pressure monitors, and blood glucose monitors; all of which are playing an important role in monitoring patient health more effectively.
The use of apps is a rapidly expanding area for health data monitoring with >318,000 healthcare monitoring apps, 47,140 medical apps but only 96 apps approved by NHS. Richard explained the lengthy process required to become certified by NHS. NHS expanding this list would have huge benefits for health and social care, providers would welcome an approved source of apps and devices.
Richard moved onto a research item being carried out by UWE. The Centre of Digital Excellence (CoDE). This is a mock environment that simulates a GP surgery, waiting room, reception, and patient home. It is set up with real IT equipment, internet, and software to simulate how patient data flows through the service. This environment does not capture mock data that would be carried out by a social care provider. But is an interesting piece of research that can showcase how clear and accessible data flows improves patient health.
Peter Doyle Digital Business Advisor
Peter spoke about the services and support offered by the Heart of the South West Growth Hub. Peter’s work is mostly focused on the Digital Link project that offers fully funded 1-2-1 digital business advice, guides, course, events, and workshops.
https://www.heartofswgrowthhub.co.uk/
The second part of Peter’s presentation focused on productivity and AI. AI as a tool can have great benefits to all organisations, and Peter had some great advice for AI usage. The use of AI in social care has to be more closely monitored and thought out, as the kind of data processed and the consequences of getting something wrong are high.
Holly Stockdale Skills for Care – Resources Supporting Digital
Holly’s talk focused on the variety of services and support available to care providers, including Skills for Care Digital Skills Framework which helps support the development of skills across the sector. Holly spoke about the variety of courses that are available through Skills for Care, which can be available with some funding.
Holly spoke about the work that Digital Care Hub and The University of Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI have been conducting. This work included a round table discussion with a wide variety of stakeholders from social care, including frontline care workers. You can read the full statement here Oxford Statement on the responsible use of generative AI in Adult Social Care | Ethics in AI
This is a very interesting piece of work, as it shows social care being proactive with this new and emerging technology. Legislation and regulatory guidance will likely come in the future, but the technology is here now, and social care providers, developers, and public bodies need to react to AI today.
Free support for the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT)
The June 30th deadline for 25/26 DSPT publications is creeping up and now is the perfect time for providers to start thinking about their DSPT.
The DSPT is a yearly assessment that helps demonstrate compliance with data protection legislation along with best practice. Completing the DSPT can help reduce the impact of a data breach and cyber incident.
Digital Care Hub offer a wide range of online webinars that can support you in your DSPT publication and can be accessed here Digital Care Hub events
RCPA’s Dan Plummer offers free 1-1 support to care providers looking to publish and republish their DSPT.
For any support questions please email daniel.plummer@rcpa.org.uk