‘Groundbreaking’ social care pilot begins collecting infection data

The VIVALDI Social Care pilot will see more than 600 residential and nursing homes across the country monitoring and sharing data on infections, including Covid-19, influenza, norovirus and urinary tract infections.

“The opportunities are huge going forward”

Zoë Fry

The pilot, which launched on 31 January and will run for 12 months, aims to enhance understanding and management of infections in care settings.

Data across the 600 organisations will be logged and shared with the NHS, to try and find new ways of protecting residents from infections and reduce outbreaks.

The project has been commissioned by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), in collaboration with University College London (UCL), The Outstanding Society, Care England and NHS England.

It is one of several national surveillance studies commissioned by the UKHSA to gather evidence on the burden of infections across healthcare and community settings.

Zoë Fry, registered nurse and executive director of The Outstanding Society, which shares best practice across social care providers, told Nursing Times that the pilot would be “groundbreaking”.

The project is the first time that adult social care services will communicate data automatically with the NHS, setting a new standard in healthcare data integration.

“Social care has never collected data like this before that’s automated,” Ms Fry explained.

“The NHS uses data all the time, and we just don’t do it in adult social care.”

Ms Fry described the year-long pilot as the “missing piece of the puzzle” in improving the lives of those using adult social care services.

Zoë Fry

She explained that, once the data had been gathered, it would be published on dashboards that can be accessed by different providers from the adult social care sector and the NHS.

She added: “If we have that data, then we’ll be able to work with care homes to do things differently, so we can create policy to learn from others.

“The opportunities are huge going forward.”

Ms Fry argued that the pilot was particularly significant for nursing staff working across adult social care.

“Within the sector, nurses don’t get involved in research,” she explained.

“[With this pilot], they are at the forefront, nurses are leading within their services and getting involved in research.

“We’ve got a lot of nurses involved in the different task and finish groups, so they’re actually coming up with ideas and strategies of how the data can be used and what we need to look at as well.”

The VIVALDI Social Care pilot builds on the success of the VIVALDI study, which was commissioned by the UKHSA during the Covid-19 pandemic and looked specifically at Covid-19 in care homes.

The original study helped to inform decisions, including limiting staff movement between care homes to reduce infections and highlighting the need for sick pay for care home workers.

Professor Laura Shallcross, professor of public health and director of the UCL Institute of Health Informatics, said: “We are delighted that we have now started sharing data between care homes and the NHS in the VIVALDI Social Care research project.

“We will shortly start using this data to find new ways to protect residents from infections and reduce outbreaks, which can cause care homes to close and stop relatives from visiting.”

Meanwhile, Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said VIVALDI Social Care “gives a voice” to the sector.

He added: “It brings the sector together to improve learning and lays a strong foundation for other studies to shape social care through research going forward.

“With the data from VIVALDI, we can work with policymakers to create and deliver co-produced and informed positive change for people who live in, work in and visit social care.”

The VIVALDI Social Care pilot has been in the works for around three years and had previously been due to commence in 2024, as reported by Nursing Times.