Norfolk and Waveney ICB has awarded a two-year contract worth £250,000 for a social prescribing digital platform to tech supplier Pungo.
Utilising the Health Systems Support Framework, the ICB aimed to realise improvements in care for the local community by using the digital platform to “support resilience and maturity of social prescribing offers”.
Seamless integration, secure data handling and continuous improvement were central to the ICB’s requirements, with the overarching aim of providing a “centralised access point for digital devices, data, and support” to enhance reporting mechanisms, identify gaps, and ensure inclusivity, “especially for patients at risk of digital exclusion” or those from inclusion health groups.
Aligning with the shared care record, the digital platform hopes to facilitate “seamless referrals” to non-clinical provisions, serving as a case management system for non-clinical activities, and offering an overview of “input and output” across the region’s care sector.
Digital tools and technologies to support health and care in Norfolk and Waveney
In June, Norfolk and Waveney ICB shared a tender with an estimated value of £1,250,000 to £1,425,000 for the procurement of a population health management digital solution, capable of offering bespoke data analysis, technical solutions and digital platforms. The ICB, along with partner stakeholders, sought a digital solution to support its programme of “designing and delivering improvements to population health and wellbeing outcomes”, with the ICB specifying that the solution will need to be flexible over time as requirements and capabilities change.
The ICB also offered an update on progress made around aims set out in the ICS’s five-year Joint Forward Plan, including how data is being used to measure progress and completion of ambitions. The ICS has recently published its population health management strategy and a health inequalities strategy, with a focus on prevention, improving health outcomes, reducing health inequalities and tackling wider determinants. Here, the ICS notes using “linked-data from many sources to identify reversible risk and opportunities to implement evidence-based interventions to reduce unwarranted variation”. It adds the focus to transition and scale successful pilot projects and encourage innovation.
In July, the ICB sought expressions of interest from suppliers for the provision of a digital offer for children and young people’s mental health, with a total value over a potential three years of £1.17 million. The ICB shared plans to introduce a digital offer where young people can access activities, self-help and information, get advice, guidance and talking therapies/counselling support, through a range of methods such as a website, video conferencing to instant messaging.
