Care-led innovation: celebrating home-grown technology in social care brought together care providers, technologists and cyber security specialists to share what innovation looks like in practice, what is helping, and what still makes people pause.
Date of webinar: 28 January 2026
View a recording and read a write-up from the session. Part of Digital Care in Focus: Innovation.
Context
With more than 81 per cent of CQC-registered adult social care services now using digital social care records, up sharply from just a year ago, change is happening fast. National policy is encouraging better data standards, safer data sharing across health and care, and growing use of tools such as artificial intelligence (AI). But one theme ran through the discussion: technology on its own is never the answer.
Innovation that starts with care, not technology
Paul Cooper, Senior Quality, Compliance and Innovation Specialist at the Homecare Association, opened the session by reframing what innovation means in a social care context. Rather than chasing new tools, he described innovation as trying new ways of working that genuinely improve outcomes.
That means taking informed and proportionate risks, learning from what does not work, and making sure technology supports human relationships rather than diluting them. Efficiency matters, but speakers were clear that the bigger prize lies elsewhere. Prevention, early insight and more personalised support all depend on good-quality data and systems that work for the people using them every day.
Building your own when systems fall short
Khaled from Trustworth and Qwikify shared why his family-run care home organisation decided to build its own AI-powered care planning platform. Existing systems were slow, inconsistent and often felt impersonal. Completing a care plan could take up to eight hours, with quality varying significantly between staff.
Their in-house solution now produces a draft care plan in around 20 minutes, pulling information from existing records, standardising content and prompting staff to add meaningful, person-centred detail. It has also enabled new ways of working, including faster discharge-to-assess pathways.
Khaled was open about the challenges involved. Developing software alongside running care services brought costs, technical demands and pressure on already stretched teams. There were also unanswered questions around regulation, AI governance and cyber security, alongside natural resistance to change. What helped was a clear focus on a real problem, a small and dedicated internal team, an agile approach to development, and constant involvement from the staff who would be using the system.
Designing systems around real life in care
For Sharon from Be Caring, a care worker-owned domiciliary care organisation, innovation came from frustration with systems that did not reflect how care actually happens. Poor integration and clunky processes created unnecessary manual work and got in the way of fair pay, effective rostering and meaningful use of data.
The result was CareView360, a platform designed around day-to-day operational reality. It brings together automated rostering, real-time route optimisation that accounts for walking, driving and public transport, accurate pay reconciliation, integrated care planning and risk management, and role-specific dashboards for carers, coordinators and managers.
One key message from Sharon was that development does not end when a system goes live. Testing often takes longer than expected, relationships with developers matter as much as technical expertise, and being clear about what makes a product different is essential. Most importantly, staff and people drawing on care need to be involved throughout the process, not invited in at the final stage.
Improving systems without starting from scratch
Kate from Brandon Trust offered a different route to innovation. Faced with 19 separate software products, the organisation chose not to replace everything, but to rethink how those systems worked together.
By consolidating data into a single warehouse and rebuilding the user interface using AI chat tools and agentic models, Brandon Trust is making information easier to access without changing all the underlying systems. Staff can ask simple questions, such as when their last supervision took place or whether there are any current risk alerts, rather than navigating multiple platforms.
This approach depended on serious groundwork. Data accuracy was improved from around 70 per cent to over 90 per cent through regular audits and strong governance. Kate also highlighted the need for more collaboration across the sector on AI design, warning that isolated, one-off solutions risk creating new problems rather than solving old ones.
Innovation without security is not innovation
A timely reminder from Digital Care Hub’s cyber security specialist, Cyber Sam, brought the conversation back to risk. Innovation that does not take cyber security seriously can create new vulnerabilities for organisations, staff and people receiving care.
Whether developing systems in-house or buying them in, providers need to understand what they are taking on. That includes looking beyond marketing claims and checking for recognised standards such as Cyber Essentials Plus, the Data Security and Protection Toolkit, and ISO 27001.
For AI tools in particular, questions about how data is handled, where it is stored, what data models are trained on, and how General Data Protection Regulation requirements are met are essential. Data Protection Impact Assessments should be part of routine practice, not something saved for later.
A sector ready to move, but held back
Discussion in the Q&A reflected a sector keen to innovate but constrained by funding and fragmentation. Providers are increasingly involving staff in digital change, and many are beginning to involve people drawing on care and families more meaningfully. However, funding for innovation remains limited, especially for developing new ideas rather than scaling existing products.
The overall picture was one of creativity and determination, balanced by realism. Social care is already innovating, often in quiet and practical ways. Success depends on clear purpose, collaboration, long-term thinking and strong foundations. Above all, digital change needs to stay grounded in what matters most: relationships, personalisation and lived experience.
