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Electronic Social Care Record (ESCR)

  • Last modified date:
    23 November 2007

The ESCR brings together all relevant information for a social care user in one place.  It holds three types of information:

  • Structured information, which typically includes:
     - national forms, such as those used for recording children’s information
     - local forms
    and
     - forms completed by service users, such as self-referral  or financial assessment forms.
  • Unstructured information which covers all other recording including:
     - letters
     - emails
     - records of phone calls
     - meetings notes
    and
     - video clips.
  • Coded data which is mainly for management and statistical reports.

The most recent detailed description of the ESCR is set out in the attached document  released in 2003. This document has not been updated but during 2007 action will be taken to develop new guidance on the ESCR.

Background

The ESCR has been developed through a mixture of national and local initiatives over recent years.  In 2004 twelve demonstrator projects were funded centrally which provided helpful advice and information to local authorities in migrating paper files on new and current care record cases over 2005-06.

The Department of Health’s approach has been to provide guidance to councils on the delivery of ESCR systems which aims for inter-authority records transfer to be developed and ultimately enable direct citizen access to their own records.

Since 2001 the Department of Health has allocated a total capital grant to Councils with Social Services Responsibilities to improve their information management systems.  The criteria for the grant made specific reference to ESCR developments in the expectation that it will be used to facilitate integration of social care information in the implementation of NHS Care records services.

The White Paper ‘Our Health. Our Care, Our Say’ has set the agenda for further integration between health and social care services to ensure a person-centred approach.  The White Paper also aims for integrated health and social care plans for individuals with long-term conditions, by 2008, and for integrated electronic health and social care records by 2010. 

Prime responsibility for implementing information technology support for social services lies with individual local authorities. However, with a view to delivering the aim of achieving appropriate integration of health and social care information systems in England by 2010 the Department’s NHS Connecting for Health agency has established an Electronic Social Care Record Board (ESCRB). The Board has responsibility for overseeing national implementation of the electronic social care record, ensuring consistency of its implementation by local authorities with social services responsibilities and integration with other information systems.  The Board is overseeing a number of national initiatives to support local action. 

Recent actions

  • NHS Connecting for Health carried out a project to assess technical options for delivering integration between health and social care systems during the summer of 2006.  The project was focused on the Single Assessment Process (SAP) for Older People, but the recommended technical architecture is intended to support wider information sharing needs.
  • NHS Connecting for Health has completed a scoping study on closer integration between health and social care systems which covers all client groups.  This study is also looking into how the technical architecture recommended in the SAP project can be implemented.   
  • During December 2006 and January 2007 the ESCR Board carried out a national survey of local authority progress in implementing the ESCR, including integration with health and other services.  The survey provides information on progress and problems encountered.  It is being followed up by two consultative workshops in June 2007 which aim to identify if further guidance and support is required to support implementation.  The survey report is attached:

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