Expanding the UCP to support personalised care
It has been a little over 2 years since we kicked off the design process to expand the Universal Care Plan beyond its original focus of urgent and end-of-life care. In this time, we have engaged with hundreds of professionals and patients to understand their needs in a digital care planning solution, dedicating countless hours to designing, prototyping, testing and refining the care plan. Whilst the design journey has not always been straightforward, it is important to recognise that the UCP is quite possibly the first digital care planning tool in the country that is taking a holistic, person-centred approach rather than treating diseases separately.
Our UCP motto is ‘What matters to me is just as important as what’s the matter with me’. As of Tuesday 21st January 2025, multiple new forms and sections have been added to the care plan to enable this. Information can now be shared about what truly matters to the person receiving care, including their interests, routines, goals, hopes, and even their food preferences. The UCP also supports people with communication differences and accessibility needs, such as those with learning disabilities and autism.
The Daily activities and support needs form can be used to document the tasks someone needs help with in their everyday life, which may help individuals living with dementia or frailty who require equipment at home or assistance with medicine management. The new Medical devices form includes information about catheters, stomas, respiratory devices, intravenous access amongst others. This will support the management of care in the community, and ensure the right equipment is taken to hospital with someone if they need to go. We also have included a new Carer contingency plan, so that replacement care can be enacted if the carer needs medical attention.
This expansion is just the starting point for the UCP. In the future, we plan to develop the care plan further to support long term conditions and additional use cases which may include diabetes, renal, respiratory, and mental health. The clinical strategy will be guided by a new UCP Clinical Governance group with input from the London clinical networks and population health data. We would like to thank every professional and patient across London who has been involved in supporting the UCP Programme.
Dates for the Diary
Thursday 13th February, Tuesday 4th March & Tuesday 18th March – UCP training for Croydon care homes at St Christopher’s hospice. Find out more and register here.
Wednesday 12th March – UCP patients with lived experience group meeting.
Wednesday 19th March – UCP Champions meeting. If you would like to be part of our champions group, please get in touch.
UCP Monthly Report
GP connect is coming soon…
Following the release of the expanded care plan, you may have noticed that the medication and allergies form is a lot shorter, and the ability to enter medications and allergy information has been removed. We want to reassure you that in the coming months we will open this form up to include a real time, in-context view into the GP record using a national integration service called GP Connect. This will enable users to view medications and allergies directly from the GP record, ensuring alignment. Additionally, allergies will be put back into the banner, making it clear which allergies the person has. This was requested by stakeholders to reduce administrative tasks and the opportunity for discrepancies between systems.
For the time being, please view medications and allergies in another source, which could include the London Care Record discharge summaries or the GP record. If you wish to add medication as part of a management plan, they can still be entered in the form Symptom management plan instead, so urgent care colleagues can view medications the person is taking. Thank you for your patience while we implement this solution.
UCP resources for care home staff
We now have dedicated resources for care home staff available here and on our Learn page. Co-developed with the Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London, these resources were shaped by discussions with a range of health and social care professionals. The resources include:
- Staff training materials
- Awareness-raising posters and video
- Benefit documents
In January, we also had a learn and share event, bringing system stakeholders together to share their experiences and insights on supporting care homes to adopt the UCP. Below, you can click to watch a video where care home staff and system stakeholders share their experiences of using the UCP.
Universal Care Plan: helping you share what matters most
We have been working with stakeholders to better understand how to increase awareness of the UCP following the template expansion. Conversations with colleagues have highlighted key opportunities and challenges. Clinicians value its versatility, NHS App integration, and patient-driven features, but barriers like time constraints and accessibility must be addressed.
To support awareness raising of the UCP’s expansion and drive its adoption, we’re now using this insight to develop a communications pack, building on what has already been produced, and including digital communications materials, FAQs, and case studies. We will keep you updated on its development.
UCP project manager opportunity in Greenwich
A UCP project manager role is currently being advertised in Greenwich. The full details can be found here.