Webinar held on 13 August 2026
Digital Care Hub hosted a webinar as part of Digital Care in Focus: commissioning month, exploring how commissioners can support social care providers to build digital maturity, strengthen cyber resilience and make better use of technology.
The session brought together Margaret Woodcock from Hull City Council, Becky Churchyard from Buckinghamshire Council and Paul Berney from TSA, who shared practical examples and lessons from their work with providers and commissioners.
Watch a recording below
Scroll down to read a summary from the session
Webinar summary
Digital transformation starts with people, not technology
A key message throughout the webinar was that digital maturity is about much more than buying and implementing technology. It also depends on leadership, workforce confidence, safe data use, cyber resilience, service design and strong relationships between commissioners, providers and people who draw on care and support.
Co-production can challenge assumptions
Margaret Woodcock shared Hull City Council’s experience of developing its adult social care digital strategy.
Hull used the What Good Looks Like framework to help structure its approach, but importantly also gathered local insight through research with residents and engagement with providers, staff, voluntary and community organisations and people with lived experience.
This helped challenge assumptions about what people actually wanted from digital services. The key lesson was simple: don’t presume – ask people and listen to what they say.
Cyber resilience is part of care quality
Becky Churchyard shared Buckinghamshire Council’s approach to embedding cyber resilience into commissioning, contracts and quality monitoring.
An initial audit found that while many providers had business continuity plans, cyber incidents were not always considered. The council responded by taking a supportive, educational approach, making cyber resilience part of routine conversations with providers and helping them think through practical scenarios, such as losing access to care records or medication systems.
The experience demonstrated that cyber security is not just an IT issue – it is directly linked to safe, continuous care and business resilience.
Commission for the service, not the technology
Paul Berney shared lessons from the Digital First Blueprint, developed by TSA with ADASS.
The blueprint highlights the importance of starting with the people and outcomes being supported, rather than beginning with a technology solution. Commissioners should understand their local starting point, define the service model, build the business case and involve people with lived experience before selecting technology.
A key takeaway was to look beyond pilots. The question is not simply whether a technology works, but whether the wider service model, workforce, training, data and business-as-usual arrangements are ready to make it work at scale.
Key takeaways for commissioners
The discussion highlighted some practical steps commissioners can take:
- Start with outcomes, not technology.
- Involve people with lived experience and avoid making assumptions about what matters to them.
- Work closely with providers to understand their capacity, confidence and barriers.
- Make cyber resilience part of quality and contract management, rather than treating it as a separate technical issue.
- Use practical support and partnership working, not compliance requirements alone.
- Learn from what is already working elsewhere rather than starting from scratch.
- Design for scale and business as usual from the outset.
- Keep sight of emerging issues such as AI, interoperability and the increasing use of personal data.
The bigger picture
The webinar reinforced that effective digital commissioning is ultimately about people, relationships and better services – not technology for its own sake.
For commissioners, creating the right conditions for digital transformation means listening to people, understanding providers’ challenges, supporting cyber resilience and sharing learning across the sector.
As the speakers reflected, there is already a wealth of good practice across social care. Working together and learning from one another can help local areas move forward more confidently, safely and sustainably.
