All care homes in Scotland will be able to use £1m fund to buy iPads

The Scottish government has set up a £1m fund so every care home in Scotland can purchase up to two iPads to help residents stay in touch with family and friends.

Care home staff will also be able to use the iPads to support the clincal management of residents’ health conditions remotely.

The new funding for 1,400 care homes in Scotland follows a successful pilot project that provided digital devices to six care homes in Aberdeenshire to address digital exclusion, supported by Scottish Care, the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “Digital devices can never replace human interaction and we continue both to actively review what more we can do to support visiting with input from family members, carers, and clinicians and finalise our plans for routine designated visitor testing. But the pandemic has shown us that digital technology can help keep us in touch with our loved ones and provide vital access to healthcare through services such as NearMe for video consultations.

“This fund will give care home residents an additional way to keep in touch with family and friends. Staying connected will be even more important as we approach winter, and the Scottish government is committed to doing everything we can to prepare and support care home residents and the staff who look after them.”

Half of the funding is coming from the Connected Scotland programme, a Scottish government programme set up in response to coronavirus to provide digital devices and support to develop digital skills for people who are digitally excluded and on low incomes.The other half is coming from the Adult Social Care Winter Preparedness plan.

Dr Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care said: “The funding which has been announced by the Cabinet Secretary will help to improve connection for many. We hope that it is the start of an increased recognition of the critical contribution of technology in the care home sector and that we will see an enhanced commitment to the appropriate use of technology and digital in social care as a whole.”

Isla Cowe, acting care home manager at Allachburn Care Home in Aboyne has been using iPads with her residents and has found it “really makes the difference to their general wellbeing and they don’t feel such a sense of loss at being unable to have the physical contact with their families at this time”.

She added: “Having the Near Me technology has proved so useful in reducing the number of people who need to visit whilst still being able to provide the same level of service that our residents and their families would expect. We recently had a consultation using this technology with the Speech and Language Therapy team, and were able to change the course of action to be taken for this particular gentleman which has proved immensely beneficial to the care that we deliver to him.”