NHS Digital have awarded £1.4m to projects that help ease the process of moving patients from hospitals to social care.

The digital partner of the health and care system has announced the local authority and NHS partnerships that have been successful in bidding for a share of £1.4m to help digitise their assessment, discharge and withdrawal (ADW) notices.

The current, non-digital systems in place to handle ADWs has been identified by local authorities and their NHS partners as one of the stumbling blocks to the transfer of care from health to social care settings.

The successful local authority-led partnerships are: Dorset, Hackney, Lancashire, Wirral, Worcestershire, Hertfordshire and Rotherham.

Their bids were assessed on a range of criteria, such as the demonstrated strength of local partnership working, supplier commitment, understanding and mitigation of risks and the overall value for money.

‘This funding isn’t going to be the whole solution to delays in transfers of care but as a digital substitute for faxes and post, these projects will help smooth the process of moving statutory key information from a healthcare setting to local authority social care,’ said James Palmer, programme head for the social care programme at NHS Digital.

‘Further assurance comes in the form of electronic notifications, letting hospitals know that their notices have been received by the local authority.

‘This will help to remove some of the pinch points in the hospital discharge process through helping health and social care to integrate their IT systems.’