The Technology and Digital arm regularly engage with members on several topics to inform wider work. It also supports engagement with several industry partners to understand new technology and digital solutions and to facilitate engagement with Scottish Care members where appropriate. These engagements have also led to securing ‘in kind’ contributions to projects such as the Digital Care Planning Data Sharing (Dumfries and Galloway) and the Future Workforce Roles project. 

In 2017 Scottish Care collaborated with The Glasgow School of Art to explore the future of care at home. A key outcome of the project was a set of speculative future workforce roles designed to support dialogue and critical reflection across the sector.  

The roles included: 

A Care Navigator: specialising in coordinating the multidisciplinary care team through gathering, making sense of and organising different flows of data in order to provide responsive, personalised and relationship-based care at home.  

A Care Connector: specialising in facilitating meaningful relationships – both physical and digital – for people accessing care at home and supports clients to work towards their aspirations and goals. 

A Care Technologist: specialising in facilitating the interactions between assistive technology, people accessing support, and the wider care team in order to provide meaningful and personalised support.  

 

Figure 1. Future workforce roles in care at home

 

The outcomes of the project provided a biography and job advert for each role to make tangible the potential purpose, key activities, and skills and training that could be applicable.

In the current project, we aim to explore these roles further by understanding the way in which they relate to existing roles within care at home and how they could be developed within this context.