The Big 5: A Q&A with disruptors in the health and care sector

In our final Big Five Questions podcast for our #LGADigital support programme, we climb inside the thinking behind one of the UK's most ambitious transformation programmes in adult social care.  Richard Smith, Kent County Council's corporate director for adult social care and health, shares his whys and hows for embedding digital technology into public services. "My passion has always been empowerment and giving people control," says Richard. "Digital, for me, is about solving problems. We need to stem the demand for social care and the deployment of technology can reduce and delay the need for social care...Small amounts of investment can pay us back huge dividends." Richard shares his vision of a digital workplace facilitating more choice, dignity and agency for those who need it most. 

For the fourth podcast in our #LGAdigital series, our CEO Clare sat down with Norfolk County Council's Sarah Rank. As head of business and technology in adult social care services at one of the UK's most pioneering councils, Sarah has a great insight into what good practice looks like, and how even the best models can always find room for improvement.  From her first ever success in converting others to digital ways of working, to cutting out the noise from the care tech market, Sarah's insight has plenty of lessons for us all. 

For our latest #LGADigital podcast our CEO Clare is joined by a passionate champion of digital care tech to cut through the noise around adult social care and get a real grasp on the issues that shape this work. "I'd seen analogue kit in beige boxes sitting around the office gathering dust – I didn't really get it" admits Gavin Bultitude, assistant director for strategic planning with Suffolk County Council's adult care team, of his attitude on inheriting responsibility for digital care.  Gavin's lightbulb moment? A colleague's use of "ecosystem", a term that clicked with his education in biological sciences and wakened him to the power of digital tools to transform lives.  This third podcast in our Big Five Questions series gives a fascinating insight into the workforce crisis; demographic pressures, and what choice and autonomy *really* look like. 

In this episode, our CEO Clare Morris speaks to Norman Niven, the founder of The Medication Support Company about the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in health and care technology.

In our first podcast episode, we explore what does being a 'digital disruptor' feel like on the inside? For our first #LGAdigital podcast, Rethink Partners' Clare Morris fired five burning questions at Claire Shuter, corporate development director at ECL. Discussing her ambitions, her frustrations, and those big wins for adult social care, Claire lifts the lid on just how it feels to keep pushing for digital progress.  It's a great listen as two passionate advocates for technology-enabled care swap notes on the current state of play and their ambitions for the future.