New Adult Social Care Network covering Devon, Somerset and Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly

The South West Academic Health Science Network is building on its popular South West Care Home Network to create the Adult Social Care Network, covering Devon, Somerset, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, growing its audience to invite and include domiciliary care and a wider audience of adult social care staff, providers and charities.  

Join us on Thursday 21 September for the first in a new series of FREE online events for the Adult Social Care Network offering peer-to-peer support and showcasing, celebrating and sharing ideas across adult social care.  

About the new Adult Social Care Network 

In 2021 the South West Academic Health Science Network created a South West Care Home Network as part of the national NHS England Medicine Safety and Managing Deterioration Safety Improvement Programmes. The Network has enabled the South West care home sector to work and improve together, welcoming over 180 members in the last year alone to learn, share and celebrate good practice and innovation in care homes.   

As the NHS seeks to increase digital health tools and services as part of its Long Term Plan, the South West Academic Health Science Network is supporting both care homes and adult social care providers in the South West to adopt digital systems to improve outcomes for service users and people we care for, and increase information sharing between health and social care.  

To help us to deliver this work we’ve decided to widen our existing South West Care Home Network to become the Adult Social Care Network, covering Devon, Somerset, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Our network is now open to the broader adult social care sector, including care homes, local Integrated Care Systems, nursing homes, residential homes, learning disability homes, domiciliary care providers, supported living, day centres, charities and personal assistants across these three counties. 

We’ll be continuing highlights from the South West Care Home Network, including regular regional share and learn events with expert speakers and celebrations of teams and individuals making a difference in adult social care across the South West.  

The network will align its focus to the priorities of our local Integrated Care Systems and will benefit from new insights and collaboration with a broader audience across adult social care – including the involvement of those with lived experience of adult social care.  

If you were part of our South West Care Home Network, we encourage you to continue to join our events and activities as we continue to shine a light on improvements in care homes among wider adult social care themes. Your involvement is valued and making a difference.  

If you are, for example, a domiciliary care provider, care worker, or charity that is new to us, or you are involved in adult social care, we invite you to join our Adult Social Care Network and come along with us on the journey.   

September Agenda  

Our first Adult Social Care Network meeting on 21 September will focus on digital social care records and the use of technology.   

Digital Social Care  

• How are we adopting digital social care records in the South West? 
• Sharing of good practice from the region 

Adult Social Care Technology 

• Exploring how technology can be used to help solve problems around quality of care, improve safety, reduce avoidable admissions, support selfcare and independence, or improve loneliness and isolation. 

Celebrating Success  

• We’ll be celebrating success and saying thank you to all the dedicated staff and teams across the South West adult social care sector. 

Joining the Adult Social Care Network 

Our Adult Social Care Network is open to all those working across the Adult Social Care Sector, including in or as: 

• Integrated Care Systems (ICS) from Devon, Cornwall and Somerset 
• Care Homes 
• Nursing Homes 
• Residential Homes 
• Learning Disability Homes 
• Domiciliary Care Agencies 
• Carers and Personal Assistants 
• Local Authorities 
• Service Users 
• NHS & Clinical Leaders 
• VCSE Sector 
• Local authorities, forums, local provider networks 
• Ambulance services 
• CQC 
• NICE  
• Other agencies representative of the Adult Social Care Sector  

We welcome existing local networks to collaborate with us and celebrate success. 

For more information about membership, please contact South West AHSN Programme Manager Nikki Taylor (nikki.taylor@swahsn.com).  

You can sign up to the event here.

We will be running Adult Social Care Network events on the following dates through 2023/24: 

7 December 2023 10.00 – 12.30 

21 March 2024 10.00 – 12.30 

20 June 2024 10.00 – 12.30