NHS Digital Funding for Councils

NHS Digital to spend £720,000 to help councils solve local challenges using digital technology.

17:40 02 July 2018

The Social Care Digital Innovation Programme (SCDIP) has chosen 12 councils of the 80 that applied for funding in May and has given them £20,000 each. The funding aims to help councils in finding solutions to local challenges using digital technology.

 

NHS Digital's programme lead for the social care programme, James Palmer, said: "This funding will give local authorities a chance to identify and investigate a local problem before testing out a potential solution."

 

The funding is allocated for the ‘discovery phase” that will last for three months, after which point six councils will be awarded additional £80,000 to design and implement their proposals.

 

"They will be sharing their experiences from the pilot projects, adding to our collective knowledge of how digital can effectively be used to support the delivery of adult social care," Palmer continued. "There are some really exciting proposals this year and I am looking forward to seeing the outcomes."

 

The final phase of the programme will last from November 2018 to March 2019. By such time, the chosen six councils are expected to have developed products or services that can be tested with end users.