CASPA Calls for National Care Information Service to Drive Community Care Integration
The Care Software Providers Association (CASPA) has today published a new briefing paper titled “Digitally Integrated Community Care: Enhancing Outcomes, Coordination, and System Efficiency”, urging national bodies to prioritise the creation of a National Care Information Service as the first step toward delivering truly integrated, person-centred community care.
Building on the foundations laid by the Digital Social Care Records (DSCR) programme, the proposed Social Care Interoperability Platform (SCIP) could evolve into a nationally led solution that enables information sharing across a diverse range of care settings.
The paper highlights that many care software systems already meet high clinical, governance, and interoperability standards, and that the sector is ready to deliver integrated digital coordination—if the right infrastructure and policy environment are created.
To that end, CASPA makes five specific recommendations:
- Establish a social care-led entity to host the National Care Information Service.
- Agree the first use case for shared information—such as improving transfers of care—and define the associated benefits for people drawing on care.
- Roll out the National Care Information Service across the country and use this as a means to benchmark nationally and create a unified view of the national provision of care services.
- Secure care provider buy-in and community care pathways redesign via funding.
- Ongoing DSCR funding, IT support and DHSC mandating for Assured Suppliers.
The briefing positions these steps as a strategic opportunity to modernise care delivery, strengthen NHS resilience, and support more timely, coordinated and person-centred care.
A spokesperson for CASPA said: “Community-based care is the backbone of a sustainable, preventative health and care system—but it remains digitally fragmented. The National Care Information Service offers a practical, scalable, and inclusive route to change that, without sacrificing the choice and innovation that a plural market brings.”
The full briefing paper is available here: https://caspa.care/resource/digitally-integrated-community-care-enhancing-outcomes-coordination-and-system-efficiency/
