May 13th 2026
The King’s Speech placed cyber security, digital identity and public service modernisation firmly within the context of national resilience and economic security, signalling a direction of travel that could have significant implications for adult social care.
While adult social care itself was not directly mentioned, several proposed Bills could affect how care providers share information, protect data, connect with NHS systems, and manage cyber risks in the years ahead.
The Speech included plans for:
- a Cyber Security and Resilience Bill
- an NHS Modernisation Bill
- a Digital Access to Services Bill introducing Digital ID
- wider reforms linked to national security and public service modernisation.
Taken together, these proposals suggest that digital transformation is increasingly being framed not simply as a technology issue, but as part of the UK’s wider approach to economic stability, national infrastructure and public sector resilience.
For adult social care, that matters.
The sector is already navigating growing expectations around cyber security, interoperability, digital care records, and information sharing with health partners. Many providers are also trying to make sense of rapidly evolving technologies including AI tools, remote monitoring, and digital identity systems.
The wider tone of the Speech also reflects growing political pressure on public services, particularly the NHS, to improve productivity and efficiency. Across health and care, technology, automation and AI are increasingly being presented as part of the answer to rising demand and financial pressure.
However, many in the sector continue to caution that digital tools alone cannot solve long-standing workforce pressures, recruitment challenges and capacity issues across adult social care.
The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is expected to strengthen cyber security duties for organisations providing critical and digital services, increase incident reporting requirements, and expand regulation around cyber resilience.
For adult social care providers, this could eventually influence:
- cyber preparedness
- supplier assurance
- ransomware resilience
- business continuity
- procurement expectations linked to NHS and local authority partnerships.
The NHS Modernisation Bill also appears to build on reforms already underway rather than representing a completely new direction.
That matters for social care because, despite repeated ambitions around joined-up care, health and social care systems often still operate separately in practice. Local systems are increasingly trying to improve information sharing across neighbourhood health services, hospital discharge pathways, and multidisciplinary community teams, but providers continue to report barriers around interoperability, access to information and system fragmentation.
The wider direction of travel also points towards greater emphasis on prevention, earlier intervention and more data-enabled approaches to reducing pressure on acute services.
Care providers have consistently highlighted the importance of timely access to clinical information, particularly around discharge, medication changes, and coordinated care planning.
The proposed Digital Access to Services Bill introducing Digital ID is one of the newer elements announced in the Speech.
At this stage, there is still very little detail about how the system would work in practice. However, digital identity systems could eventually affect:
- how people access records and public services
- how organisations verify identity
- staff onboarding and right-to-work checks
- consent and access permissions across systems.
It may also raise important questions around digital inclusion, accessibility and support for people who are less confident using technology.
Michelle Corrigan, Chief Executive of the Digital Care Hub, said:
“Although adult social care was not a major focus of the Speech directly, many of the proposals could have important implications for the sector over time.
“What stood out was the way cyber security, digital identity and public service modernisation are increasingly being framed as issues of national resilience and economic security, not just technology policy.
“For social care providers, this reinforces the importance of cyber security, good data protection practices, and being involved in wider conversations about interoperability and neighbourhood health services.
“There is still a great deal we do not yet know about the detail behind these proposed Bills, and there will rightly be significant discussion and debate as more information emerges. It will be important that the voice and realities of adult social care are part of those conversations from the start.”
The Speech itself sets out broad legislative intentions rather than detailed policy, and many of the practical implications for social care will only become clearer over time.
Some proposals are already moving through Parliament, others are new announcements, and many will likely change significantly through consultation and scrutiny.
For now, the overall direction is becoming clearer: stronger cyber resilience, more connected public services, increasing expectations around secure data sharing, and growing pressure for health and care systems to work together digitally.
We’ll be discussing the King’s Speech and more in Friday’s episode of our Ctrl+Care podcast on YouTube and Spotify.
Related links
Image: Britain’s King Charles III reads out during the State Opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London, Wednesday, May 13, 2026.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)
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