Well it's time for thing 3. Why digital? I suppose you could say in this day and age 'why ever not?'
With my non-work head on I would say the same, but having been in and around the social care workforce for a long time I feel that it had not been particularly an area of focus. I appreciate I am only going on my own experience.
When I looked at the Skills for Care Info graphic containing the results from their survey of staff and managers I was pretty surprised. The fact that 90% of staff reported being confident in their digital skills-albeit basic skills-was a number far higher than I would have expected. This made me analyse my experience more-why did I have the assumption that more of the workforce would feel that they were not confident in their digital skills? I think a reason could be that I am mainly hearing people's opinions on their digital skills when they are not feeling confident and this has skewed my perception. I know that in my organisation we have been carrying out a digital skills survey so I will be interested to see what the results are closer to home as it were, and compare them where possible with the Skills for Care survey.
I would have been interested to see further interrogation of the results-if 90% of staff were confident in their skills but 52% of their managers were not confident in their staff's skills, why is that? Why the gap in perceptions? I wonder what managers are looking for staff to be able to do that they are not seeing? What type/range of digital skills were people thinking of? If I am providing direct support to people who use the service and I feel that I can use my smartphone confidently to check bus times or swimming pool opening times to provide a direct benefit to someone during support that may be an example of my digital practice at work that I am basing my answer on. I think it is a really valid one and directly linked to the work I am doing and something that provides tangible benefit to the person using the service. However it may not be one that is directly visible to my supervisor. My manager may be basing their perception on how confidently or how often I use the office PC for admin-another important part of my role (maybe not my favourite work task) and more visible to my manager if not to people I support.
I was also interested to find out what the survey had to say about what stops use of tech in social care. I noticed that managers had more practical concerns and I was unsurprised that staff having access was mentioned. Working in a care home I think can increase the chances that staff have access and time to develop work related digital skills however organisations such as mine have more staff who are working in people's own homes in dispersed services-care at home/housing support. Working in these types of teams makes it more difficult as time in the office base is precious and team meetings, supervisions and essential admin tasks are priority. I have worked in both types of support service so I know the differences. I don't have an answer to this, but writing this during the pandemic I do wonder if the outpouring of media led appreciation for social care (along with the NHS) will result in increased funding and an overhaul in how services work. Will funding of services in the future consider not only prioritising paying for direct care and support contact time? Will there be an appreciation that providing supernumerary time and funding for digital equipment and training is absolutely essential for our workforce and ultimately for people who use services?
When I looked at what concerns staff had re use of digital technology in social care I was unsurprised to see that along with a small amount of concern about security (which may be partly about the safeguarding of people we support) that the main concern that came out was the worry that use of technology reduces staff contact time with people who use the service. I think this speaks volumes about the vocational nature of this job. Ultimately in social care we know that people need people and technology should not ever replace people in care and support. I have had these worries in the past too especially around about assistive technology-and selfishly you do worry about your job, like everyone else I have mouths to feed-but it did also cause me worry about the folk using the services and would they have less human contact. I think we all need reassured about this and to see a focus on how digital technology can assist us to be more efficient, improve the service and spend more meaningful time with people we support.
On reflection I know that I need to be more open to people who use the services getting support to be digitally skilled and safe. I think the safeguarding bit can be a real barrier to being open to supporting people to use digital technology. Like all colleagues I am very aware of confidentiality; data protection; GDPR and SSSC codes as well as the very specific risks that some people who use services pose to themselves and others at times. I believe all of these things do need to be given careful consideration before embarking on providing support and guidance to people who use the service in accessing digital technology and getting new skills. I do think there can be potentially lots of benefits to supporting people who use services to be skilled and confident in the digital arena as it can open up the world for them-meeting new people, learning, leisure, work opportunities.
As for me...I undertook the '23Things Digital' self-assessment and scored myself 3-average for capability, 3-average for confidence and 2-low for relevance. Previously I would have scored myself higher for relevance but recent experience has made me aware that there is so much more I could be doing digitally in my role if I had the skills and knowledge. So, I have been making inroads with this and am grateful for the framework of the SSSC 23 Things Digital to support me in developing. I am looking forward to doing the self assessment at the end of the process and seeing an increase in my scores across the board. Fingers crossed, watch this space.
