Insights

Why a technology everyone agrees with is still taking so long to arrive in care. I have been in a lot of rooms about care technology over the last six years and I cannot remember a single person arguing against it. Directors of adult social care want it, housing associations want it, the NHS wants it, and families, once they understand what it does, want it very much. Ministers announce it with enthusiasm every eighteen months or so. The technology works, the evidence exists,

Part 10 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. Back to where we started The very first article in this series made one simple claim, that if success is not defined before go-live, it cannot be measured after it. Nine steps later, this is the moment that claim pays off. The baseline was taken, the measures were agreed, and a method for putting social value into pounds was chosen before anyone ordered a single device. Everyth

Part 9 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. From the report to the table Last time we followed the data out of the home and into the reports, the trends and early warnings that let a service catch trouble before it turns into a crisis. That work matters, but a report only ever does half the job. The other half happens in a room somewhere, around a table where people with budgets and responsibilities decide what to do next

Part 8 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. The same data, a different job The last two articles lived in the moment after something had gone wrong. An alarm was raised, someone at the Alarm Receiving Centre answered it, and the right help was sent, climbing the escalation ladder no higher than the situation needed. That is reactive care done well, and it matters enormously, but it shares one limitation with even the best

Part 7 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. The last article in this series ended inside the Alarm Receiving Centre, with a call answered, a person spoken to and a situation assessed against a care plan that the operator actually had in front of them. This one is about what happens in the minutes that follow, because choosing the response is where a technology enabled care service either proves its worth or quietly squand

Part 6 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. The moment the whole pathway was built for Five steps in, and everything so far has been preparation. The organisation planned and set its baseline, the place was mapped, the person was listened to at the kitchen table, the connections were built, and the data began to speak in alerts, trends and reports. All of it, every workshop and wiring diagram and procurement decision, has

Somewhere in Britain this morning, a woman in her eighties got up four times in the night. Her kitchen kettle has not boiled since yesterday lunchtime. Her movement around the house has been slowing for three weeks. In a month she will be in A&E after a fall, and a hospital discharge team will begin an assessment that captures none of it. That gap, between what is happening in someone's life and what any professional can see, is where the social care crisis actually lives. An

Part 5 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. The plumbing was never the point Four steps in, the pathway has a plan, a map, a person and a connection. The organisation knows what success is worth, the place has shown where the need and the strengths are, a household has told the service what a good day looks like, and the invisible plumbing now carries every signal reliably out of the house. Which means the service is now

Part 4 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. The promise leaves the house Three steps in, and something important has happened. The organisation knows why it is doing this and what success will be worth, the place has been mapped street by street, and a person at a kitchen table has told the service what a good day looks like for them. Promises have been made, to a board, to a community and to a household, and every one of

Part 3 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. The front door at last Two articles in, and we have finally arrived at the front door. That is deliberate, because the order matters. The organisation decided why it was doing any of this and set its baseline at step one, the place told us where at step two, and only now does the pathway reach the person who will actually live with the technology. Most programmes start here, or

Part 2 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. The step most programmes skip Last time we made the case for strategy before shopping, where the organisation decides why it is doing any of this, takes its baseline, and agrees what success will be worth before a penny is spent. The natural instinct once that work is done is to head straight for the front door of the first person on the list, because that is where the need feel

Part 1 of 10 in our TEC Pathways series, following the journey from first plan to proven outcomes. A year or so after any technology enabled care service goes live, somebody senior leans across a meeting table and asks whether it actually worked. It is a fair question, usually asked by the person who signed off the budget, and in far too many organisations it is followed by a silence that everyone in the room recognises. Not because the service is obviously failing, and not b

I have been reading articles recently about sensor technology being presented as having finally solved a problem our sector has apparently been waiting a long time to address. The problem, as it is framed, is this: when a sensor detects something, who decides what happens next? I t is a good question. But I want to be straightforward about something. The answer to that question is not new. The capability being described, routing alerts to a qualified professional who rev

At conferences, on calls, and across LinkedIn, you hear the same message from care technology companies. Move faster. Be bold. Disrupt. Scale. That energy has driven real progress across health, social care and housing. It has a place. But on its own, it does not deliver in the real world of public services. Because while care tech companies are pushing forward, local authorities are holding the line. And they are right to do so. Two very different worlds Care tech comp

The discussion around return on investment (ROI) in care technology has often been framed too narrowly. Financial savings are frequently presented as the primary justification for adopting digital solutions in health, housing and social care environments. However, this approach fails to reflect the complexity of modern care systems and the diverse stakeholders involved in delivering and receiving care. This paper argues that ROI in care technology must be understood through m