Logging our Care, with people at the heart of it

Our Being Local plan sets out a clear ambition: to be a strong and capable organisation that gives local teams the confidence, tools, and systems they need to deliver brilliant high-quality support in every community we work in. Digital transformation plays a key role in making this happen.

By investing in modern digital systems, we’re making it easier for our support workers to work more flexibly, share information more effectively, and spend more time supporting people to live the lives they choose. 

Log my Care, our new care management system, is central to this. Designed with people at its heart, it makes it easier to record and share information in ways that involve people, ensuring support is shaped around what matters to each individual and giving people greater choice, control, and visibility over their information.

Tosin Sulaimon, Digital Operational Subject Matter Expert, who is supporting the Log my Care rollout across Certitude, told us all about it.

Digital First

By becoming a ‘digital first’ organisation, we’re making it easier for teams to work more effectively and make informed decisions about performance and quality. Modern, integrated systems help us work smarter, enabling us to focus on what really matters - to support people to have good lives! 

Our new HR & Payroll and Finance systems have already improved how we work. Now Log my Care will give people we support and their families more visibility, control and choice over their support and the information we record.

As Digital Operational Subject Matter Expert for Log my Care, I've been working closely with our operational teams and helping prepare colleagues to use the new system. I’m really enjoying showing it to them and explaining how it can help people to be more involved in how their support is recorded. 

Using it together

Because Log my Care is on a mobile app, it’s easy to use on the go and become part of a support worker’s daily routine with the person they support. It also has several features which make it easy to use and look at together, recording things as they happen.

For example, the ‘voice to text’ function means people we support can easily add to the system by talking about what they have been doing or how they are feeling. This can be recorded as text in the app, in the person’s own words. It’s perfect for recording someone’s preferences, such as the activities they enjoy, or if someone prefers a particular way for people to communicate with them. 

Photos or short videos can also be added through the app to show what someone has been doing, how they are feeling, or to celebrate achievements. This is great for people who prefer visual ways of communicating, or who don’t use words to express themselves. Photos or videos can be added by the person being supported or their support worker and then looked at and talked through together. 

Instead of support workers adding information at the end of the day, Log my Care can be used as a shared, ongoing activity. This helps people stay closer to how their support is recorded and frees up more time for support workers to focus on delivering high-quality support.

Getting feedback, getting ready

The people who will use Log my Care every day helped us to choose the system and ensure it was right for everyone’s needs. Now, colleagues and people we support continue to shape it, so the way it works reflects real day-to-day practices. 

As we get ready to use Log my Care across Certitude, I’m spending time with operational managers to help them prepare, including setting up accounts for the people the team supports. Support workers are also getting a preview of the system before it goes ‘live’.

Because of my own experience of having worked as a support worker, I know what it involves, and this has helped me to talk about the new system, explain its benefits, answer any questions, and get people excited about it. 

I’m spending time with different teams to understand how they work and gather their feedback on Log my Care, including what could make it work better. I then share their ideas and suggestions with the digital team as we configure the system ahead of rollout.  

I’m also showing people we support how they can be involved in using Log my Care, and the feedback has been very positive. One person told me she loved the idea of completing her support plan with her support worker. Another person said it was great that he would have more quality time with his support worker because they could update Log my Care while they were doing things together.  

We’ve also asked people we support to look at the language used in the app and tell us whether it makes sense. Their feedback has helped us to make sure everything is written in plain English without social care jargon, so it’s easy to understand and doesn’t exclude anyone. 

I love the fact that we’re all working together on this, making sure Log my Care is shaped by the people who will use it every day. 

Looking ahead

By August, Log my Care will be in place across Certitude. We expect our Operational teams to find it easy to use and to gain more quality time with people they support, as the system can be used throughout the day on a mobile app.

It will also improve the quality of information we can see and share. It will help us better understand, record and track the impact of the support, and make it easier to share clear, consistent information with families, regulators, and funders. Because the system is aligned with the expectations and standards required for CQC inspections, information and evidence can be shared simply and confidently when needed.

For me, one of the most significant benefits is that people’s records will be more accessible to them. Their personal preferences, goals and everything they are doing to achieve these, are all seen on the app. People will be able to add to their own records, in their own words and voice (or expressed thorough photos or film clips), either independently or with the help of their support worker. 

It makes perfect sense - after all, these are their records, not ours!