You will be aware of recent DHSC messaging on digitisation and digital social care records (DSCRs), including the headline that 80% of care providers now use a DSCR.

We wanted to set out what is now publicly stated about the government’s next-stage ambition, alongside clarifications CASPA has received through our contacts in NHS England and DHSC.

The Ambition for Digitisation
DHSC has published an ambition that all care providers will be “fully digitised” by the end of this Parliament (June 2029). This wording appears in the DHSC press release on adult social care reform and is repeated on NHS England’s Digitising Social Care site.

Our NHS England Digitising Social Care contacts have described “fully digitised” as having core digital foundations in place, including:

• use of an assured DSCR
• completion of the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT)
• active exploration or use of other care technologies and software, where appropriate

While the 80% DSCR adoption figure is public, we have not yet seen published data showing what proportion of this relates to assured versus non-assured DSCR solutions.

This distinction is important, particularly for interoperability and the future direction of standards.

Interoperability
CASPA’s working assumption is that policy intent is to drive increasing adoption of assured solutions over time. This is likely to be achieved through interoperability incentives and national capabilities — including SCIP, where access is restricted to assured suppliers — creating a practical “pull” towards assurance.

Related Standards and “Mandatory” Requirements
We are also monitoring new and evolving requirements that may act as levers for progress, including:

• the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag information standard, with mandatory compliance messaging and a published national compliance deadline
• ongoing expectations around DSPT as a recognised assurance mechanism across health and care

CASPA Engagement
CASPA will raise these issues in upcoming system and national forums, including the Digital Social Care Advisory Group (DSCAG), to seek greater clarity on:

• how “fully digitised” will be defined and measured (definitions, evidence, reporting)
• which national levers will be used (funding, commissioning requirements, standards, assurance)
• the expected pathway towards assured DSCR adoption, including milestones over time

How You Can Get Involved
Member insight is critical. If you are seeing emerging expectations locally — for example, through ICB engagement, commissioning language, contractual requirements or informal guidance — we would encourage you to share this.
You can:

• reply directly to this email, or
• contribute to the discussion in our CASPA LinkedIn forum, where we are collating member intelligence and practical examples

In particular, we are keen to understand:

• what you are seeing locally
• your plans for assurance, or not, and why
• how the government can best support this ambition

We will consolidate member input and feed it into our discussions at DSCAG and beyond.