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Angus Honeysett re-elected as chair of techUK's Social Care Working Group

29 September 20265 min read
Guest Insights
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I've worked closely with techUK for five years, through the SCWG and the Health and Social Care Council, and I'm delighted to continue as Chair. Partly that's personal as I believe in techUK's work to influence national policy and bring people together. But it's also because social care is entering the most significant period of reform we’ve ever seen.

As attention shifts towards prevention and neighbourhood-based support with greater independence, stronger communities and digitally enabled support as the goal, technology is central to how future services take shape. The SCWG has earned its place in that conversation by offering a forum where sectors meet for multi-sector collaboration, where experience is shared honestly, failures as well as successes, and where achievable models for better care are built.

Transformation, though, is about far more than delivering the same solutions in digital ways. It requires cultural change, collaborative leadership, decisions grounded in evidence and a steady focus on outcomes. By designing services around the needs of the people who use them, we get better experiences alongside better use of public money.

That is where the group’s role is distinctive: bringing different perspectives together to challenge thinking across health, housing and care, and to build confidence in doing things differently.

Effecting real change is the point and central to the SCWG. It’s not just a talking shop. It’s a home for debate, ambition and the drive to make a difference, and has become a trusted and influential voice for technology-enabled social care. We authored and published the CareTech White Paper in June 2025, setting out a practical vision for the future of digitally enabled care, and launched the inaugural CareTech Summit. We’ve strengthened relationships across government and the wider sector, engaging regularly with ministers, officials, parliamentarians and national organisations. That work is helping shape national discussions, including the Casey Commission.

In 2026/27 we will:

  • Show how digitally enabled social care delivers the three shifts in the NHS 10 Year Plan

  • Set out our position on technology in neighbourhood health, including where consumer wearables support prevention and independence

  • Build the evidence base and work with national bodies on interoperability, standards and reform, including DHSC-led programmes

  • Convene local and national health and care organisations around the problems that matter to them

  • Work inclusively across all four nations, reflecting the different reform paths in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Policymakers increasingly come to techUK and the Social Care Working Group (SCWG) for practical, evidence-based advice on the role of technology in reforming social care. We will keep leading those conversations, sharing insight and supporting prevention, not simply responding to reform, but helping to shape high-quality care, support and services through innovation, collaboration and evidence.

We've built real momentum. I think we've only just started.