Home Care Day is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the many successes in the Care at Home and Housing Support Sector in Scotland. It is also an ideal occasion to highlight the vital role of Home Care workers across the country, and the extraordinary support and care they give to people within our communities.
It may be unsurprising that with the incredible advances in technology over recent years, and the impact that this has had in every aspect of our day-to-day lives, there have been numerous developments in technology within the Home Care and Housing Support sector also. Since joining the Scottish Care team earlier this year, I have been fortunate to work closely with a variety of businesses and suppliers, exploring new and existing opportunities which may assist our members and the people they support.
Over recent months, Scottish Care have welcomed a variety of new technology-based suppliers along to our national events, each keen to offer products, services or indeed new innovations to help and enable within the social care setting. New technologies are being introduced and further developed to assist Home Care workers and providers in delivering the highest level in care, and indeed to enable individuals to retain control of their supports for as long as possible.
However, it is not only new businesses who are embracing technology in order to support within the social care setting, as many suppliers who may not be thought of as “technology-based” companies are also incorporating new innovations in order to streamline products, services and benefits for our members.
In August 2018, we held the very first event focused solely around technology within the social care setting, “Tech Care, Care Tech”. This unique event brought together care providers, regulatory bodies and researchers, and offered the opportunity to interact directly with suppliers using and developing technology to support within the social care sector. Suppliers included care management software providers, recruitment specialists, marketing consultants and compliance platforms, in addition to our main event sponsor, Clydesdale Bank.
While preparing for this event, our CEO Donald Macaskill also explored social care technologies and the human rights considerations involved, publishing a report entitled “TechRights: Human Rights, Technology and Social Care”.
We are seeing new technologies being introduced faster than ever in every area of our lives and are very much part of an age of technological advancement. While we must always consider the human rights and indeed human care aspects involved with the introduction of new technology, we also have a wonderful chance to consider how the exponential growth of the technological sector can be used to complement and indeed support our own. With new innovations and expertise always developing, we must continue to explore new opportunities and focus on future advances to assist in the Home Care setting, and to support the vital work and care provided by the sector in Scotland.
Fiona White
Sales, Marketing and Events Officer, Scottish Care
