A Tradition of Innovation: 10 years back, 10 years forward with Nourish Care 

Birthdays are a natural cause for reflection. As Nourish Care celebrate our 10^th we find ourselves looking to both the future and the past to better understand where we are today. For 10 years, ever since we got our first customer, Nourish has been proudly supporting care providers across the UK and beyond.

Growing alongside our users, increasing the functionality of our platform and expanding the range of care types we work with. Throughout this journey we remain connected by a singular focus, a golden thread that runs through every iteration and evolution of Nourish. The idea that the people who receive care come first. This commitment to care and foundation in coproduction defines our past and decides our future. As we look forward to a litany of possibilities, from data and AI, to family connections and institutional integrations, it is our focus on people that matters most. As is tradition. 

Okay, technically, we are actually closer to 14 than we are to 10. The seed for Nourish was first planted in 2011. This seed of an idea would spend four years flowering into the first iteration of Nourish that was officially launched with our first customers in 2015. These four years laid the groundwork of both our system and our culture. Nourish is rooted, deeply, in the care experience. We can only succeed in putting people first when we first start with their perspectives, experiences and outcomes of care.  

In 2015 our CEO, Nuno Almeida, took part in a Tedx event in Bournemouth. The theme was ‘Creative Illumination’. It boasted a range of speakers and sectors, unified by their creative solutions for established challenges. Back then, the main focus for care technology was digitisation. While the conversation moved significantly forward since then, the roots of Nourish’s person-centred approach remain as relevant as ever. Digital care records are no longer an aspiration; they are a common feature.  The goal of connected care plans is still pursued throughout each iteration of Nourish products as we continue to build towards a more informed, and informative, care ecosystem. You can even see the early ideas of data and AI application way back in 2015 when Nuno mentions ‘creating the right algorithms running on the data to help drive improved outcomes for people using care’. 

Fundamentally, the talk ends with a focus on people. The people who utilise care services, their families, and the people who provide care. Nuno mentioned a few examples specifically as well as the ‘20 or so’ providers we were already working with. Because while ‘when’ we started can be debated, ‘how’ we started is clear. We started by working with care providers, and that is how we will always continue. 

The past 10 years saw a lot of changes at Nourish Care. With expansions, integrations, and configurations galore.  

The first three years were focussed on building out our functionality and scaling up to meet the needs of our rapidly increasing customer base. We went from 12 users at the start of 2015 to 428 in 2018! Thanks to user feedback we developed foundational features for the Nourish system during this time. Starting with interactive care plans in 2016, before focusing on data utilisation with Nourish Analytics launching in 2017 and Nourish Insights in 2018. Features and products we continue to develop and offer today! 

By 2018 Nourish was operating in social care for several formative years. Over this time we learned about both the potential of our software systems, and the reality of social care technology.  

So we co-founded CASPA with other care technology suppliers. The key goal of this group was the effective, safe and regulated proliferation of digital systems in social care. CASPA provided a resource for software suppliers to champion the benefits of our systems, like the exchange of information between care and health services, and other ways of digitally promoting continuity of care. This development reflected our ambition to positively impact social care on a larger scale through both our technology and our technological knowledge. 

This undertaking almost immediately bore beneficial fruit. In 2020 COVID struck the world down, and social care providers across the UK stood up in response. CASPA demonstrated the power of care data utilisation to the UK government and the NHS. This data supported the forecasting and planning of future waves of the COVID virus to inform appropriate preparation and responses. A revelatory application of social care data. One that in turn helped drive improved care outcomes in many areas.  

After the success of this initiative during COVID, CASPA pushed for further digitisation in social care. The establishment of the ‘Digitising Social Care’ programme was a direct result. Nourish was the first software supplier to qualify for the Digitising Social Care ‘Assured Solutions List’. The programme’s guide for approved systems available for purchase with local authority financial contribution. 

The funding and expertise offered by this programme helped accelerate digitisation in social care throughout 2021. The following few years saw a myriad of digital platforms announce themselves to the sector. Each boasting its own benefits and unique solutions for long-standing social care challenges. 

In response to this rapidly increasing selection of software we established the Nourish Partnership Programme (NPP) in 2022. We recognised that we can’t be the one source of every good idea in care technology. There are people working on brilliant technology all the time. Through the NPP we have, do and will continue to build connections with other care technology suppliers. Establishing a new aspect to our tradition of collaboration. Drawing on their specialisations and perspectives to support our software and offering guidance to Nourish users who are interested in expanding their technology ecosystem. Of course, we only integrate with those we align with, such as Altra, Found by Lottie, and e-Reception Book. This way we can ensure we are up to date with the best systems out there, as well as uncompromising on our commitment to keep people at the forefront of everything we do.  

One of the biggest steps we took on this front was quite recent. Nourish Care acquired CarePlanner in 2023, nearly doubling our size and opening the world of home care to our technology. This acquisition was built on more than technological ambition. It brought together two care technology teams that already shared a design philosophy. A denominator of putting the person being supported first smoothed the combination of these teams. Following this acquisition Nourish became the most widely used care management supplier in the UK! 

2024 was a year of growth across Nourish. We continue to add to our list of integrations and partners. We are building out all of our teams to reflect our ambition and responsibility. It took us a little time to fully acclimate to our increased size. Once these teams settled and people found the room to excel, we couldn’t help but look once more to the future. 

The future is bright here at Nourish. Informed by tradition and unleashed by collaboration we have big plans and bold ambitions. Care technology is far more widespread than when we started. As a result we are moving from questions of digitisation to data utilisation.  

When it comes to understanding data, and by extension AI, we are at the forefront in the care sector. We hired a team of well-educated and experienced developers, led by our Director of Data and AI, Sudha Regmi. We remain unwilling to rush to delivery with AI, as we continue to iterate and test AI models alongside Nourish users. This ensures we are not caught up in the hype of AI applications sweeping every industry in the world right now. But rather, we can walk assuredly, in step with care providers, to find the right applications of AI, and consequently, build the best apps for it.  

This approach has stood us well over the past 10 years, and even recently has helped us develop new, exciting functionality for data management. Such as our Insight dashboards, and several exciting products coming soon.

These new products represented the next era for Nourish. Which in turn initiated an update to our naming conventions. Over the past 10 years we transitioned from working with care homes, to a wider range of care and support providers. As we expand our product range and the people we support even further, we realised we needed to update across the board while enshrining our guiding philosophy. 

While we are expanding our range of products, our commitment remains the same. The people in receipt of care come first. Our new selection of products, the ‘Nourish Product Ecosystem’, reflect the changing world of care and support around us. They are targeted at specific challenges providers face. Offering effective digital solutions for a wide range of needs because we know no two people with support are the same. One size will very much not fit all. You need the right tools for the job, and the best people behind them to support you.  

Each circle of the Ecosystem reflects a different focus for our products and the impact it will have on your community. 

With each individual product developed and tested through co-production with our users to provide you with the innovations your community needs. 

At the coalface of our new innovations is our product team. Under the stewardship of our Chief Product Officer, Matthew Stewart, we built a robust and creative product team. We understand care technology is at an inflection point in its development. We care presented with the opportunity to truly revolutionise how care is delivered and the outcomes it provides. Our team works alongside care providers, in Nourish tradition, to build this technology. Creating a cycle of iteration and feedback with a range of stakeholders from throughout the care process. Ensuring we have the perspective and experience of everyone who will be impacted by the care provided. 

Who knows what the next 10 years holds?  

At Nourish we are preparing the same we always have. By working with our users. Talking to people who live care every day. Bringing together technical expertise with human understanding and building solutions collaboratively across a range of relevant experiences. Reflection without action is simply indulgence. We look back with honesty so we can step forward with certainty. The past 10 years have not always been straightforward, but thanks to the people around us, we always know where we’re going.  

Come join us for the next 10, it’s going to be one hell of a celebration.