The UK's social care sector is huge, employing more than 1.5 million people who work in a diverse range of settings including care homes, hospitals, community centres and homeless shelters. We recognise that it is industry-led innovation, across not just technology but also systems and processes, that ensures vital services are provided in an effective and person-centric way to society's most vulnerable individuals.
Here you can find an overview of the work techUK and its members are doing to further this mission, along with a repository of relevant government strategies and legislation.
Latest social care innovation news
Read industry updates, member insights, guest blogs and event round-ups with a focus on social care innovation.
Upcoming events
Social care innovation podcast
Hear our guests explore the concept of ‘place’ in care, the principles behind it, the impact of COVID-19 on care delivery, prospects for innovation following the introduction of Integrated Care Systems, examples of industry best practice, and where listeners can go to learn more about ‘place’ and innovation in care.
Integrated Care Systems report
techUK has published a new report – Right from the Start: What should Integrated Care Systems prioritise to make digital, data and technology work for them and their populations? - highlighting the key areas in which Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) can make a significant impact in driving progress on the most pressing issues facing the service at the moment: tackling the backlog, addressing health inequalities, and the need to improve patient outcomes and staff experience.
The recommendations focus on:
- Putting the who before the how: helping citizens take control of their health and care
- Putting the why before the what: embedding demand-signalling within each ICS
- Putting outcomes before processes: fostering innovation through procurement
- Prioritising interoperability and data: driving long-term transformation
- Working together: creating an open and transparent environment for collaboration
Member 'Show and Tell' videos
Watch presentations given by our social care members on their work to techUK's Social Care Working Group.
Relevant strategies and legislation
NHS What Good Looks Like (WGLL) framework (published August 2021)
Directed at all NHS leaders, as they work with their system partners, setting out what good looks like at both a system and organisation level. Describes how arrangements across a whole ICS, including all its constituent organisations can support success.
People at the Heart of Care white paper (published December 2021)
Sets out a 10-year vision for adult social care and provides information on funded proposals that DHSC will implement from 2022-2025.
Health and social care integration: joining up care for people, places and populations white paper (published February 2022)
Sets out measures to make integrated health and social care a universal reality for everyone across England regardless of their condition and of where they live.
Health and Care Act 2022 (came into effect in April 2022)
Removes existing competition rules, formalises ICSs as commissioners of local NHS services, and grants the health secretary authority over the health service.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/31/contents/enacted
Draft Standards and Interoperability strategy (published May 2022)
Aims to improve levels of interoperability across the NHS, provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities, and outlines the main foundations for success.
UK Parliament Innovation in adult social care report (published May 2022)
Provides a summary of the types of innovation in the sector and evidence on key barriers to and facilitators of innovation. Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic are presented. The focus is England but examples are included from all four UK nations.
Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data policy paper (published June 2022)
Shows how the government will use data to bring benefits to all parts of health and social care – from patients and care users to staff on the frontline and pioneers driving the most cutting-edge research.
Upcoming: The National Strategy for AI in Health and Social Care
The NHS is developing a national strategy for the development, implementation, scaling and monitoring of AI-driven technologies in the UK’s health and adult social care systems.
Upcoming: Draft Health and Care Cyber Strategy
techUK held an exploratory workshop with the NHS Transformation Directorate in July 2022, convening cyber security and social care members, social care providers, Digital Social Care and NCSC colleagues to discuss a potential support offer to care providers.
More information will be provided in the coming months.
Get involved
All techUK's work is led by our members - keep in touch or get involved by joining one of the groups below

Health and Social Care Council
The Council meet regularly to develop and lead the techUK Health and Social Care Programme, bringing focus to our healthcare policy work, and to the programme's activities, representing the wider membership.

Interoperability Working Group
The Interoperability Working Group will work towards achieving the vision set out in NHS England’s 2022 draft standards and interoperability strategy. The group will aim to encourage the adoption of open standards and fluidity of data whilst recognising the commercial needs of members. It will also focus on demonstrating the value of interoperability to NHS senior management and improving the abilities of SMEs to implement interoperability standards.

Healthcare Group
techUK members can keep in touch or get involved in our work by joining this group, and stay up to date with the latest events and opportunities in the health programme.

Social Care Working Group
The Working Group acts a neutral forum for knowledge exchange across the supplier base and for public sector stakeholders to engage with the market. While identifying common challenges and solutions and offering the opportunity to leverage synergies to partner as often an ecosystem approach is needed to solve a problem.
For more information, please contact: