GB-London: Improving digital skills in the professional workforce

The digital skills review undertaken by Ipsos Mori, IPC and Skills for Care looked across a wide range of the workforce to investigate digital skills and confidence. The numbers of social workers and occupational therapists surveyed was relatively low, with the chief focus being on the workforce in the provider sector. PCH wanted to better understand the skills and confidence levels of social workers and occupational therapists in embedding care technology into care and support.

In March 2024 PCH, in partnership with the LGA workforce team, carried out a health check survey on the professional workforce (occupational therapists and social workers). For the first time in 2024 a digital skills section was included. Over 15,000 professionals responded to a set of questions related to the competence and confidence of their digital skills. The results shown that, on average, staff were somewhat confident in digital skills. This support offer looks to improve the confidence of the professional workforce for all upper tier councils.

The aim of this offer is to increase confidence in digital skills across the registered professional workforce. We will achieve this by focusing on a number of key topics that were identified as areas of improvement within the digital skills survey.