We hosted our Autumn Providers Conference on Thursday 3^rd October, at the Bescot Stadium in Walsall.

This time, our conference was focused on Digital Social Care and Cyber Security, due to October being Cyber Security Awareness month!

We were thrilled to welcome our expert guest speakers in this area:

• Katie Thorn – Project Lead – Digital Care Hub- Presented on Where is the care sector now in the digital world and where are we going?
• Michelle Ohren – Detective Inspector – The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands- Presented on Mastering Cyber Security in Your Business
• Kerry Beynon- Partner (Commercial Team)- HCR Law- Presented on Is GDPR Still Relevant?
• Leesa Newbould – Business Development Executive- Person Centred Software- Presented on Digital Medication Management
• Marie Hawkes-Smith – Business Development Manager – Ally Cares- Presented on What is Sensor Based Falls Prevention Technology?

You can view all the presentations here

Alongside these were our fantastic exhibitors for the day, which included:

• HCR Law
• We Care Communications
• Person Centred Software
• Ally Cares
• Syncurio
• CareLine Live
• Citation Cyber
• British Red Cross
• The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands
• WMCA DSPT team

It was a very informative day, with lots of essential information shared with care providers.

Learning points to come out of the day consisted of:

• Ensuring you use Multi Factor Authentication on all your devices, ensuring there is more than just your password protecting your data
• Use Password Manager software on your device to save all your passwords in a secure place (to ensure you don’t forget any and to enable you to have a different password for every account?
• More and more care providers are now using ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence to support them in writing policies and procedures (BUT DO NOT USE THESE TO INPUT SERVICE USERS DATA OR WRITE CARE PLANS AS THIS IS A SHARED NETWORK AND NOT SECURE)
• It is recommended you complete your Data Security Protection Toolkit (DSPT) to enable you to prove you take data protection seriously and have the correct procedures in place.
• There is a Digital Skills Framework which providers can use to assess their digital knowledge and areas for learning
• GDPR is still relevant and if you have any dealings with other countries, you must ensure that their GDPR regulations are the same as the UK or risk being investigated and fined.
• Digital Medication Management can reduce mistakes within the workplace, reduce staff time inputting data and holds individuals accountable.
• Sensor Based Falls Technology allows staff to continuously be in the room with residents overnight through recording any sounds while residents sleep, to enable for a smoother shift handover and quicker reaction time if there are any issues.

Thank you for everyone who came and we look forward to the next conference at the Bescot Stadium, which will be our Registered Managers, Deputies and Seniors CPD Conference on 23^rd January, focusing on CQC Quality Statement, ‘Is Your Service Effective’?

Book your place now.