What Good Looks Like Self-Assessment Tool for Councils
31ten was commissioned to produce a prototype self-assessment tool for digital working in adult social care: What Good Looks Like (WGLL). We worked with the existing framework to define functionality and how the existing structure and content of 56 statements should work.
Partners in Care and Health (PCH) is a collaboration between the Local Government Association (LGA) and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) to support councils in how they improve Adult Social Care and Public Health services.
Digital working in adult social care: What Good Looks Like (WGLL), published by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, is a thematic framework for harnessing the potential of technology in care. It sets out a series of statements that identify what good digital working and use of technology looks like in care settings.
PCH was tasked with developing the statements that refer to councils into a useful and usable self-development tool for councils. PCH commissioned 31ten to transform the WGLL framework into a self-assessment tool and supporting content to be moved onto a digital platform for councils to use.
The Role
We took a user-centred, iterative approach to developing a prototype self-assessment tool. In the first phase, we carried out interviews and an interactive workshop with officers from councils across the country to investigate our key lines of enquiry:
- Purpose – why will councils use the self-assessment tool?
- Functionality – what functionality does the tool need to have for councils to get the most out of it?
- Content – how is the content in the existing WGLL framework best used to build out the tool?
- Prioritisation – how could the tool support councils to prioritise efforts to embed changes.
We took user insights and began to develop content, which we tested in a follow-up workshop. We iterated content based on feedback and developed a version 1 prototype, which we tested in detail with several councils; officers used the prototype to conduct a ‘mock’ self-assessment and provided feedback on usability in a third workshop. The content was then iterated again, and we developed a final prototype tool.
To further the successful embedding of the tool, we worked with stakeholders to develop supporting documentation:
- Auto-populated feedback for councils with guidance on next steps and how to link results to the new CQC assurance framework for Adult Social Care.
- A library of best practice examples to support councils to progress in areas identified for development.
Key Outcomes
- Delivery of a fully user-tested prototype, which was able to be rapidly moved onto a digital platform to be trialled by PCH
- Delivery of a full suite of content and supporting documentation to accompany the tool
- Production of a final report for PCH with detailed recommendations relating to user requirements, functionality, and future considerations for sustainability
