Independent Care Sector Leader Project

The NHS Five Year Forward View made a commitment that, by 2020, there would be "fully interoperable electronic health records so that patients' records are paperless". This was supported by a Government commitment in the 'Personalised Health and Care 2020 Framework' (PHC2020)4 that "all patient and care records will be digital, interoperable and real-time by 2020". The Secretary of State for Health has committed to paper free at the point of care by 2020. Radically new care delivery models supported by new payment arrangements which are value and outcome based are driving the need for change. This requires information to flow more effectively across health and care to support the delivery of direct patient care.

In order to support the health and care system to meet these challenges of today, and to ensure its sustainability in the future, those involved in leading, delivering and receiving care therefore need to be equipped to 'exploit the power of digital'. This programme, 'Building a Digital Ready Workforce', helps enable these needs to be met.

Every other industry has been fundamentally changed by the digital age. Technology has delivered changes to services in these industries that are more customer focussed and that are based on analytics which enable truly user-focussed experiences. Not so much in health and care. The evidence demonstrates that this is partly to do with culture and attitude, and partly to do with capability and capacity.

The Building a Digital Ready Workforce (BDRW) Programme is directly aligned to that set out originally in (what was) National Information Board (NIB) 'Workstream 6', is co-led by NHS Digital and Health Education England, and aims to support the creation of a digital-ready workforce which will impact areas of the workforce across the entirety of health and care (1.6 million social care staff, 1.4 million NHS staff in England).