Technology initiated a sea change in social care. The rapid uptake of digital systems in social care saw the number of providers using digital social care records (DSCRs) double in the past four years. This impacts every aspect of the care community, from the processes we use each day, to the outcomes people using support experience. The benefits a provider can enjoy from ‘going digital’ are well documented. What is less well documented is the impact technology, and by recent extension AI, have on our perspective. Specifically, our perspective of ‘what good looks like’ in social care.

We sat down with Lewis Sheldrake, an expert with over 15 year’s experience working in local government and a legacy of innovative implementations of technology and training to discuss this topic. Lewis won the prestigious Local Government Challenge in 2023 with his novel AI Labs project. This project centred on ‘leveraging AI into all aspects of local government service delivery’. Crucially, in a way that supported emotional intelligence and promoted human interaction, two core tenants that ran through our conversation. We chatted about the changing perspectives on what good looks like in social care; moving from reactivity to proactivity, the relationship between data, AI and benchmarking in care and why we need to be open to new opportunities in technology.

Lewis Sheldrake spoke to us in a personal capacity and not on behalf of any local government or association.

“From a local authority point of view the absolute baseline of what good looks like in social care is not having any kind of substantial safeguarding risks. Not being in a position where you’re leaving your most vulnerable without care. Or not essentially fulfilling some of the statutory duties that are placed upon local authorities under the Care Act.

“You can probably already pick up the fact that a lot of what I’m talking about is the absence of certain things happening, as opposed to it being a positive. I think that, unfortunately, is part of the challenge that we face. Looking at this through the lens of local authorities, it’s mainly focussed on avoiding crises, rather than proactive, aspirational care.

“Whereas if you were to put it from the perspective of a person receiving care, it’s different. For them, it’s having that assurance that the care that they are receiving is safe and of a good quality. So they can live safely and independently in their own home for as long as possible

“This contrast in perspective is critical, and it’s exactly the point from which we must evolve. It creates the space for technology to bridge the gap and, crucially, help redefine what ‘good’ can and should look like in modern social care.”

“Firstly, I think it’s important to understand that by the time someone gets to their local authority they are at a certain level of need. Their needs are relatively acute and consequently are going to require a level of intervention. One that’s likely expensive at that stage. This is the reactive model we’ve become accustomed to.

“We often hear cases where a family member can no longer cope. They’ve been providing informal care to that loved one and they’re burned out. Under the Care Act 2014, the local authority has a statutory duty to assess those needs – and where they meet eligibility criteria, arrange appropriate support. By this stage, the intervention is often urgent, complex, and resource-intensive.

“This is happening at a time where councils are absolutely creaking with the volume and complexity of demand that is arriving at their front door. And I think invariably that so many of these cases could have been foreseen with the right technology and data in place.”

“Absolutely, with the right technology we could intervene earlier to help the person avoid requiring a care package for longer. Keeping them there, living well and independently for longer. Supporting their next of kin to be able to continue to provide that care but also have some respite for themselves. I think this is where technology really can fit in. There are two key components of this.

“The first is about being smart in our uses of data. There are some really good examples from my experience around using data. Such as a council utilising data from other interactions it had with people to help build greater levels of prediction. Initiatives to understand when somebody is deteriorating to such an extent that a proactive intervention would be valuable.

“I know during COVID a council were able to identify with 95% accuracy which of their residents would likely be on the shielding list. Through the use of data, they’re able to accurately predict those people and proactively support them. I also know of councils who utilised data to develop predictive falls models. Again, this significantly changes the effectiveness of care, as we can proactively reach out to at-risk people and offer them interventions. Interventions which, along with improving quality of life for citizens, save the local authorities money.

“The second part of this is through digital technology devices. For example, in the case of falls, a device that can detect when a person falls and activate an alarm in response to send for support. But beyond responding to incidents, there’s increasing potential to analyse the patterns and behaviours that often precede a fall. This allows us not just to react, but to intervene earlier or mitigate the risk before a fall occurs at all.”

“I think both of these aspects, if used coherently, will alleviate the amount of pressure arriving at the front door of local authorities. Both in volume and also in terms of acuity. Now, by the time someone is coming to you for a care package you already have a more rounded understanding of their circumstances. Who they are, the context they live in, and the support networks around them. . The volume of that home care they need is less than it otherwise might have been thanks to earlier, preventative interventions.

“In effect, it helps smooth the peaks in demand – reducing the levels of complexity and acuity of cases presenting at any one time. Which in turn lowers the cost to the council and the financial burden on the person receiving support.”

“It’s central. Broadly, there are two ways of using data to understand need and provide effective care.

“There’s the strategic, macro use of aggregated data across large population groups. This approach is highly effective at generating predictive models that assess risk and identify patterns. Providing valuable insights for both providers and commissioners. It enables more intelligent, data informed decisions about how services are designed and delivered, ensuring they are suitably tailored to meet the needs of their clients. We’ve seen examples of this approach applied with great success in other high-risk sectors, such as the aviation industry.

“The second way, and I think the more exciting side, is the micro, hyper personalised application. Where we can focus down on the individual to really understand their needs and ambitions. Again, we see impressive examples of this data application in other sectors. Such as the preference-driven algorithms behind Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify. As well as personalised customer journeys across digital platforms.

“If you were to think about how some of those principles that underlie their architecture. Albeit very different sectors with very different objectives. It raises an important question: what if that architecture were applied to a health and social care context? How helpful that would be to ensure people are getting exactly what they want and need, when they want and need it?

“One of the most powerful aspects of this shift from reactive to proactive care is the ability to anticipate. In social care, hospitals, and communities, we often hear the same phrases: ‘It was only a matter of time.’ ‘We could see this coming.’ These reflections highlight how predictable many crises are – with hindsight. With the right acquisition and application of data, we can change what good looks like in social care in a positive, person led way.”

“If we break down the core functions that exist in care, there are a number of different actors doing different tasks e.g. care planning, initial assessments, delivery of that care. I think there are really compelling applications for AI for each of those. Applications that can enhance the delivery of that function, while in turn delivering a higher level of quality and precision to the end user.

“We’re already seeing promising examples of AI reducing administrative burden with data entry. In terms of things like transcription and data input. I think it’s a good start, but there is significant untapped potential to expand AI’s role across the wider care ecosystem.

“For any care plan that’s pulled together, you think about how many other care plans have gone before that. Drawing upon the decades of experience and knowledge from the people that are inputting into those care plans. With AI this information can be readily triangulated to make the most precise care plan for any given set of circumstances. AI can prompt follow up actions or suggest referrals based on all the data your service has. These prompts support care decisions rather than automate them. Helping to standardise the service offer based on the individual needs of each client, by drawing upon the wealth of experiences and outcomes across your service to inform best practice. Ideally alleviating the variability of individual social workers, while enhancing the specificity of your care plans.

“The data gathered during this care provision is then fed back into the system. This creates a virtuous cycle of person led, community centred care. And that’s just one quick example. From high level strategy to direct care delivery in people’s homes there are applications for data and AI that improve service quality, operational efficiency and ultimately deliver the objectives that keep people living safely and independently in a place they call home for longer.”

“The most immediate answer is reducing administrative burden. There’s lots of opportunities for AI and care technology in general to afford people more time delivering what they got into the job to do. Face to face care, in a more personalised and informed way.

“Let me offer a counterpoint. There’s a common misconception that, more human care always equates to better care. But in some cases, that’s not true. Overprescription and unnecessarily invasive care can diminish a person’s independence and dignity. Take supported living settings for example. Imagine someone with learning disabilities who receives 24/7 care. There are people coming in, waking them up in the night to routinely check in on them. This is well-intentioned, but disruptive. In such cases, the use of technology there can help provide that person with a more respectful and person-centred alternative. Providing greater levels of privacy, independence and dignity. While still ensuring support is available when genuinely needed.

“My key point is about precision and that is certainly where I think AI can play a transformative role. Ensuring care is sufficiently proportionate to the needs of the individual. I don’t think that necessarily means more care is better. I think it’s about the quality, appropriateness and value of the ‘care’ being provided.

“Care in inverted commas mind you, because we’re using care as a kind of umbrella term for a whole number of things at the moment. A lot of responsibilities that are falling under the umbrella of care are not actual direct care. They are different forms of administrative tasks. We need to think about how to displace that through the use of AI and other digital tools to ensure that we are maximising our resources and delivering the best outcomes possible.”

“Absolutely, I think it has too. We have to be realistic. There are massive capacity challenges both in terms of the workforce, and also in terms of the budgets to support social care.

I personally think there are circumstances where technology could well replace some types of care which are not necessary to be delivered in person. With an ageing population and increasing levels of need and vulnerability, we have to use our finite resources wisely. Care capacity is not limitless, and technology offers a valuable opportunity to redeploy human effort where it’s needed most.”

“Understandably so, there are massive capacity challenges in social care, both in terms of workforce and budget. But rather than viewing these constraints purely as limitations. They invite us to re-examine our definition of ‘good’. They imagine how technology and AI can shape what good looks like in social care into a new vision. One that’s more sustainable, personalised, and outcomes focused.

“So much care provision is historically focussed on things like washing, bathing, food, medication. But if we consider this through the lens of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These are foundational; they sit at the base of the pyramid. Essential, yes, but not sufficient for a fulfilling life.”

“What it often fails to address, whether due to technical limitations or lack of resource, is anything related to the higher levels of that hierarchy. Support for self-esteem, companionship, and emotional fulfilment is frequently absent. Let alone opportunities for people to self-actualise!

“I really believe that there’s an opportunity to move away from the primary function of care provision being to give people the bare necessities and to basically keep them alive.

“An opportunity for us to move to a form of care that helps people have a greater level of self-esteem, belonging and purpose. Take social isolation for example. Everyone is aware of our social isolation problem and the significance of its health implications. But actual interventions to address this issue are sparse, largely due to cost.

“I think there is huge potential to augment existing models of care using technology and AI to alleviate some of these kinds of challenges.

“AI tools, even just the currently mainstream ones like ChatGPT offer fascinating potential in supporting social connection, stimulation, and engagement. For some people, these platforms provide opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations they might not otherwise have. Interactions that validate their experiences, challenge their thinking, and stimulate them intellectually. It’s obviously not care in the way that we understand and conceptualise care and certainly traditionally. But when you stop to think about it. If someone is able to enjoy an engaging conversation about a subject that’s meaningful to them, that validates their experience, challenges them and stimulates them intellectually, isn’t that a core tenant of ‘good’ care?

“I think there’s value in that. These possibilities have scope, and the potential to progress much further and I don’t think it should be ruled out. Absolutely, AI and technology can help drive more informed decisions, reduce administrative burden and promote coproduction.

“But if we just look to use technology to fulfil functions already fulfilled by traditional models of care. I think that would be a missed opportunity.”

Change, from social care to sofa cushions, is a constant.   

For a decade we at Nourish Care have been proud to help shape that change in social care. When we launched Nourish care technology was in its infancy. A vague selection of ideas and applications attempting to address a complex collection of people, processes and promises. Our approach was rooted in our understanding, bringing together our technical expertise with our personal experiences of care to ensure that care technology always put people first. From the very beginning, Nourish has been built on one simple but powerful belief: the person supported matters most. 

This belief is why we develop all our functionality through coproduction. Our commitment to collaboration is felt throughout our system. Thanks to this approach our understanding of care is deeper, our experiences wider and our expertise sharper than when we started. We continue to grow with our users just as social care technology enters its awkward adolescence. The past decade has shown us the potential for technology in social care, while Nourish users have revealed to us the best applications for our software, opening our eyes to the opportunities for supporting positive change in the wider system of care. In response, we are releasing several new Nourish products to support the wider care sector. 

This expansion of our application is rooted in keeping people at the centre of our systems. We know growth demands structure, scaling demands clarity, and crucially, care demands trust. Structure can be built, clarity provided but trust, trust must be earned.  

Nourish Care is the longstanding name of our platform and our business. More than that it is a promise, a commitment to community, coproduction and care. We will be changing the name of our platform to accommodate the new products we have developed for the wider system of care. 

We are keeping the promise. 

Our new naming convention reflects our renewed focus on people. Technology should feel as natural as the care it supports. That’s why we’ve ensured that every product name reflects not just what the platform does, but how it makes people feel. 

Nourish Care will become Nourish Better Care 
It’s important to remember where you started! Nourish Better Care is the most trusted and customisable care management system for residential providers in the UK. 

Nourish Rostering will become Nourish Empower  
All the tools a home care provider needs to support their community and manage their service. 

Nourish Community will become Nourish Better Care at Home 
Combining the mobility and admin of Nourish Empower with the industry leading point of care functionality of Nourish Better Care to support effective processes and drive improved outcomes. 

Nourish Mobile Device Management (MDM) will become Nourish Protect  
Keep your devices secure and your community’s data safe with our mobile device management system. 

Nourish Insights
Get the full picture of your service with our data dashboards so you can make more informed, more effective decisions. 

Nourish eLearning  
Available through our home care platforms, Nourish eLearning offers an integrated, accredited by CPD and Skills for Care, library of care courses for your team to utilise, supported with real time reporting. 

Nourish Care will continue to be the name of our business, with the specific names of products reflecting the impact they deliver for care providers and your communities. 

We are not the only ones changing. You are too. Our users have changed so much over the past decade, through digitisation, updated regulations, and new legislation, without ever losing sight of the people that make care so special. With our new, multiple product approach, we are establishing our foundation for future growth alongside you. So, we can best respond to the needs of today, and the challenges of tomorrow.  

No two people with support are the same. Uniqueness is the blessing, and the curse of social care. 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. 

To make it easier to find the right products for your community we created the Nourish Product Ecosystem. Each circle reflects a different focus for our products and the impact it will have on your community. 

Care Delivery – For Feeling Supported  
Technology that steps back, so care can step forward. 

Continuous Improvement – For Feeling Assured  
Because confident carers create safer, more consistent outcomes. 
 
Operations – For Feeling Secure  
Supporting care teams to be prepared, skilled, and sure of what comes next. 
 
Connectivity – For Feeling Connected  
Bringing together every piece of the care puzzle around the person. 

This approach goes beyond categorisation. It lays the foundation from which every new product, every innovation, and every solution we launch builds towards something bigger.  

Most importantly, it ensures that as we scale, we never lose sight of what made us great, keeping the person supported at the centre of care. 

Imagine a healthcare system where care teams feel empowered instead of overwhelmed. Where families feel reassured instead of disconnected. Where people receiving care feel safe, valued, and heard.  

That’s the world we’re building.  

And we’re not waiting.  

We have coordinated internally
So our teams live and breathe this philosophy.  

We are communicating externally
So our customers feel the impact as soon as possible.

We will continue to co-produce
Because technology should evolve with the people it serves. 

Change is a constant, a promise, and a challenge. One that can only be met in the same way we always have here at Nourish, by working together. Coproducing our products so that people are always at the centre of everything we design, develop and do. Because after all, change, like care, is human. 

We’ve got lots of exciting plans coming soon, if you want to build the future of social care with Nourish, contact us directly today. 

UK Care Week sits on the sunrise of Spring in the social care calendar. It beckons the buds of social care to take root in the fresh soil of 2025. We headed to Birmingham, excited to reconnect with the social care sector en masse. And share some of the ideas and functionality we are working on. Our Director of Data and AI Sudha Regmi took to the caring & sharing stage. To share our approach to ‘Responsible AI’. While our team members chatted to attendees and took in some of the other insightful sessions across the two days.   

Positioned at the entrance to UK Care Week 2025, our stand was a vibrant hub of activity for both days. We designed it to welcome Nourish users and interested attendees alike. Visitors were greeted with interactive displays to engage and explore our functionality, aided by our experienced team on the stand. This first-hand experience allows visitors to see how our tools can streamline care management and improve outcomes for their community. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, from both our visitors and our team. Each conversation held on our stand was two-directional. Offering an opportunity to learn more about care practise and care technology potential to all parties.  

Beyond our stand, the Nourish Care team actively participated in various talks and workshops throughout the event. These sessions provided valuable insights into the latest trends and challenges in the social care sector. We attended discussions on topics ranging from regulatory changes to the integration of new technologies in care settings. These interactions not only enriched our understanding but also reinforced our commitment to staying at the forefront of social care innovations.  

The most impactful of these sessions consistently were the ones informed by carer experience and open conversation. Such as those held by The Care Workers Charity and their Carers Advisory Board, as well as several talks on The Caring View stage. The knowledge gained from these sessions, combined with our more personal conversations, inform our future developments and strategies intrinsically.

One of the highlights of our participation was the talk delivered by our Director of Data and AI, Sudha Regmi. Titled ‘Responsible AI and Responsive Design in Social Care,’ the presentation delved into our person led approach to AI design. Sudha emphasised the importance of transparency, accountability, and inclusivity in AI development. Focussing on the necessity of keeping a ‘human in the loop’ throughout the process. The talk was well-received, sparking engaging discussions and leaving attendees with a deeper understanding of how AI can be responsibly harnessed to benefit the social care sector. If you’d like to learn more about this subject Sudha will be speaking at Care Show London. 

In addition to Sudha, our Content Marketing Manager Lorcán Murray hosted two panels at UK Care Week 2025. On Wednesday he helped kick off the show alongside Digital Care Hub’s Katie Thorn. Their discussion ‘Choosing the right tech to help people with dementia live a fulfilled life’ covered the potential of technology, the purpose of dementia care and how to understand and pursue your desired outcomes for your community. All underpinned by the need to keep people and family members involved throughout the process.  

On Thursday Lorcán hosted a discussion between Skills for Care’s Oonagh Smyth and The Care Workers’ Charity’s Karolina Gerlich. The session ‘What is the solution to our domestic workforce crisis?’ drew upon the deep experience, and research from both Skills for Care and the CWC. It touched on many of the important challenges facing social care’s domestic recruitment, including perception of the sector, government recruitment campaigns, career pathways and more. There remains a great deal of work to be done to address domestic recruitment challenges. And human stories and experiences are vital to opening our world up to a wider workforce. 

Our trip to UK Care Week was not just about showcasing our technology; it was primarily an opportunity to connect directly with the people who define social care. We dedicated time to meeting with and learning from existing Nourish users, listening to their experiences and gathering feedback on how we can better support their needs. These conversations are invaluable, providing us with direct insights into the real-world impact of our solutions and helping shape the future of Nourish Care. Additionally, we connected with potential new customers, sharing our vision and exploring how our technology can address their unique challenges.

In conclusion, UK Care Week 2025 was a resounding success for Nourish Care. The event provided a platform to showcase our innovations, engage with the community, and reinforce our commitment to responsible AI and person-led design. As we look ahead, we are inspired by the connections made and the insights gained, and we remain dedicated to driving positive change in the social care sector. 

If you’d like to be a part of that change, come and say hi at Care Show London, or contact us directly. 

Communication defines relationships. Whether personal or professional, the success of our relationships rests on our ability to communicate effectively with one another. In care this is understood clearly. Care providers go to incredible lengths to better understand, empathise and involve the people utilising support in their service. The same approach can be applied to your relationship with the regulator of your social care compliance. Regardless of the regulator of your service, talking to people to better understand the care you provide will be a central part of their inspection process. Preparing the people in your organisation for these conversations is crucial to taking control of your compliance rating. We explore how you can work on your team’s ability to communicate clearly with your regulator in this blog. Starting with your care and support team, before moving to managers and leaders, and finally central operations and quality assurance. Each of these conversations will vary in approach and focus but are unified by their ability to impact your inspection rating.  

Your care and support teams are your direct connection to your community. They interact every day with the people drawing upon your support. This gives them an intimate knowledge of the needs of your community, the processes and philosophy of your service as it is applied in action. A role that requires them to be excellent communicators. So how can you best help carers prepare for a conversation with an inspector?  

Confidence is king.  

Confidence in the care they provided, confidence in the information recorded, confidence in their approach and pride in the results. Inspectors want to see the care you provide, but they also want to ensure your carers know how and why they are providing it. Carers with a more formative role in the care development will naturally be more confident when describing it. Building this confidence over time for other carers is a matter of engaging with your team. Ask practice questions to help them familiarise themselves with the process and become more comfortable. 

Confidence with their care management system is also crucial. The right system is an accessible resource for carers to evidence their care and demonstrate their understanding. This is especially true for agency staff. Accessible records offer a level of familiarity with your service that agency staff can draw upon. Creating a continuity of care that underpins quality social care compliance. 

It’s important to remember the inspector’s perspective. Your rating is more than the evidence you provide; it is also dependent on the inspector’s ability to comprehend it. A clear and easily navigable software system can help make this information simple to access and follow for inspectors. You can offer them their own login to explore. Or have a carer guide them through the system, highlighting the work they do, their understanding and efficiency. This rings especially true for agency staff. Agency staff using accessible care management systems find it easier to fit into the unique structure of your service. 

A care management system offers you the ability to record your care accurately. This data is central to your social care compliance. When managers can draw specific and detailed reports they can take more confidence in their conversations. Not just in demonstrating the service they provided, but, crucially, pointing to the outcomes of your care. 

Ownership breeds confidence, just ask anyone with a BMW. When your care managers and leaders feel like the owners and drivers of the care they provide, they will be in the best position to talk about its quality. Pride might be a sin, but it is deadly effective in inspection interviews. When the work you do helps people live their best lives it is natural to take pride in it. Anything else would be unfaithful to the spirit of care. Managers that can harness this pride, and evidence improved outcomes over time, are well positioned for any inspection. 

For central operations and quality assurance team members you want to be able to show the big picture. This means being able to communicate your approach to oversight and how feedback cycles through your service in a responsive manner. Showing your processes backs up the evidence provided on a more specific level by your carers and managers. Reinforcing the quality of your care.  

Social care compliance is linked to your policies and procedures. You need to be able to present them and demonstrate how you implement them. Again, this comes back to confidence and ownership as outlined earlier. Care management software can also support you. Simplifying the recording, reviewing and reporting of your policies and procedures. 

Additionally, quality care management systems include an ‘audit trail’. This records every change that occurs on your system. Each assessment, each care plan update and all the clicks in between. This gives you a clearly evidencable history of activity on your platform. Painting a picture in real time of the journey of your care, the reality of your policies and the effort of your team.  

Relationships are hard, ask anyone whose partner owns a BMW. Communication is the bridge that we build between each other. And whether you are building a bridge between people utilising your service or the people inspecting it, its strength will be defined by the clarity of your communication. This is true to the point that being able to demonstrate the effectiveness of your approach to internal communication in your service is an indicator of quality care.  

But, and it’s a big but, effective communication is not telling people what they want to hear. It is telling them what they need to know. This includes pushing back when you feel misrepresented. You are the expert in your service. Set a standard of open, clear communication with your inspector and you will have the confidence to speak the truth to power. Clarity is rarely achieved easily. With confidence in your service, and the evidence to prove your points, clarity is the result that will earn you the rating you deserve.  

A good start is half the battle on the right foot going downhill. Unlike that sentence, onboarding home care technology does not need to be confusing. Whether you are starting your digitisation journey or migrating from one system to another, success is set in the first steps you take. At Nourish Care we are with you every stride of the way, whatever way you want to go. Our training is tailored to each user, with a dedicated Account Manager working alongside your team, plus regular training sessions on a range of key features, a rich library of guides and an easy to reach support team with an in-depth knowledge of both care technology and care communities. We developed our process over the past decade, refining our approach to onboarding home care technology over time.

Our goal is to wrap our system around your service. We achieve this by working with our users to build long lasting partnerships and drive positive outcomes for everyone involved in your community. 

We like to hit the ground running at Nourish. Once you join us, we set you up with a dedicated Account Manager for your team. Many of our Account Managers previously worked in care roles, and they all share a passion for improving care outcomes with care technology and collaboration. Your Account Manager will contact you so they can begin to understand your approach to care. We know no two care providers are the same! That’s precisely why we start working with you to understand your processes straight away.  

Your Account Manager is your consistent point of contact. A resource to help you get started the right way and continue to grow in line with your plans. You see, an Account Manager isn’t just for onboarding, they’re for life. If you are looking to grow your business, adjust your processes, or simply review your options, your dedicated Account Manager will be hand to help guide you. In turn you will guide them through your business. So that together, we can build something that supports you, your team and your community.

In order to effectively shape our system to your service, you need to understand what tools are available. We developed our approach to training over the past decade, matching our approach to the realities of providing home care to maximise efficiency, integrity and availability.  

We offer a selection of routine, group training sessions covering topics that detail the specific aspects of our system. These training sessions give you the knowledge you need to start using Nourish for home care. Whether you are utilising Nourish Rostering or Nourish Community.  

We hold each session topic twice a month. To attend you simply book in for each session as desired. Crucially there is no limit to the number of sessions you can attend or the frequency with which you attend them. This grants providers flexibility when onboarding home care technology. The accessibility of these sessions also makes it easier for care providers to train new hires later on. Rather than taking time out of your coordinator’s day, or paying extra for further training, new hires can book into these sessions with us at your discretion.  

We also offer a library for resources to help you learn at your pace. Whether it is for a specific piece of functionality or a new feature release, our support portal, or ‘Supportal’, offers a wealth of information for our users.   

Our support portal is a ‘living document’. We routinely update the library to continue providing consistent information. Our guides are written to be simple to follow and address frequently asked questions from our users. When we speak of partnerships with our providers we mean it in every sense. Just as our training is shaped by over a decade of experience, our support portal is enriched with feedback, information and experiences drawn from the wide range of Nourish users. Creating a continuous feedback loop of best practice and insight for everyone to share.  

There is no start so strong that it can escape all missteps. That’s why pencils have rubbers and we boast a robust support structure. We have two teams ready to respond to any issues that occur. We appreciate the urgency of home care and our approach to support is underpinned by the tenets of speed, accuracy and accountability. This means we are here for you, when you need, with the answers you’re seeking, and a commitment to resolving your issue. 

Our experience in home care technology taught us the importance of having teams specialised in resolving different issues. These are our Customer and Technical Support Teams. 

Our Customer Support team is your main port of call for everyday enquires. Time is precious in care, and when you need an answer quickly the Customer Support team will be there for you. Whether you’re looking for an example, an export or an explanation, the Customer Support team can help. 

Our Technical Support team are there for the more complex issues. A dedicated team of experts with the time and ability to resolve more involving enquiries and provide comprehensive solutions.  

Together these two teams are positioned to resolve your inquiries efficiently and effectively. 

The onboarding process for any care technology sets the tone for the rest of your experience. From the first moment we are committed to developing a constructive partnership with each of our users. One that is led by you and your dedicated Account Manager. We pride ourselves on the resources and support we offer our users. However, we measure ourselves by the sincerity, understanding and effectiveness of the relationships we build along with way. Because whenever you walk in step with someone, you’re guaranteed to have two right feet! 

The future of social care in the UK is linked to the future of the NHS. One cannot progress without the other. So, when the NHS established the Assured Solutions List (ASL) to help shape the future of digital social care, every software supplier in the sector took notice. NHS Assurance is a clear badge of quality and ambition. Nourish Care was the first Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) to join the ASL. A statement of our commitment to both compliance and innovation in care technology.  

The purpose of the ASL is to encourage care providers to digitise. By establishing a trusted baseline of system requirements and providing funding to help providers get started. The requirements for membership of the ASL granted confidence to providers of the capabilities of the system they were using to digitise their processes. NHS Assurance guarantees safety, security and reliability for care providers when choosing their digital partner.  

Since Nourish joined the ASL, it continues to expand in membership and calibre. This year saw an expansion of standards with the introduction of 14 new standards. These standards built upon the baseline of requirements for assured solutions and indicated the coming ambitions for health and social care interoperability. They covered a range of important issues, including the use of data, information sharing, security and integrations.  

You can read about these standards and how Nourish complies with them here. 

It is crucial to use a system that complies with these standards to set yourself up for the future. Most suppliers are still yet to be approved on all 14 standards, you can see how far along they are here. Click on the supplier and navigate to their ‘Standards’ drop down. 

It is clear the NHS have further designs for the ASL and its members. Compliance with the existing standards indicates a supplier is aligned with the future direction of digital social care. When looking to your own future it is important to ask the suppliers you utilise about theirs.  

What connections do they have to the NHS?  
What is their approach to interoperability? 
How committed are they to maintaining their standards of compliance and information security? 

Ensuring alignment with your digital supplier is vital for building a future-proof and secure business. Ensuring your system and service are qualified with NHS assurance. If you are curious about switching your digital system to a new supplier, we have prepared a useful document detailing the process with us. You can view it here.  

If you would like to learn more about how Nourish works with our users to wrap our system around your service, you can read our case studies here. 

One of the clearest requirements of the new 14 standards for NHS Assurance is interoperability. The ability to record, store and share information securely. This is in direct response to the ‘sin of silos’ that plagued health and care providers for decades.  

Along with our adherence to these standards Nourish also champions interoperability through the Nourish Partnership Programme. This initiative reflects our commitment to building solutions across suppliers to best serve care providers and their communities. We are proud to develop social care led solutions alongside suppliers, providers and our wider communities. 

The NHS and social care move together. In September Wes Streeting announced ‘three key shifts’ for the NHS. With recent developments for the ASL, increased focus on compliance and a commitment to interoperability it is obvious this shift is coming to care as well. We previously explored the move from ‘Analogue to Digital’ here. The ability to deliver the other two key shifts, namely ‘sickness to prevention’ and ‘hospital to community’ will largely be defined by the ability of different health and care providers to share their information with each other. The ‘Data Use and Access Bill‘ highlights this focus from the UK government and points to the significance of membership to the ASL for digital social care records as a baseline.

It is clear digital systems will play a huge role in the future of health and care in the UK. Now is the time to make sure you have a partner you trust, understand and enjoy working with.  

Now is the time to talk to Nourish, because things are just getting started. 

Care technology is a duality. The combination of human need (care) and digital processes (technology) is more pronounced in our sector than almost every other. At Nourish Care, we design our software to balance these two aspects, driving positive outcomes and operational efficiency. It is this approach that sets our solutions apart from the rest of the market. Nourish Rostering offers functionality that goes beyond other digital rostering solutions in both its effectiveness and its understanding. Our call monitoring and mobile app are powerful tools that empower both coordinators and carers. Our ‘Recommend’ a carer feature brings together data points to promote personal connections and our financial suite gives home care providers all the tools you need to stay in the black and on the right track.  So, you can stay on top of the numbers, needs and necessities to provide Outstanding care. 

Appointments, calls, visits, whatever name they take, wherever they happen, these are the lifeblood of home care. County councils and NHS bodies purchase 79% of home care and 96% of supported living services in the UK. Many of these contracts are determined by ‘Actual Appointment Times’, rather than just number of appointments. Digital rostering solutions are an effective way to record appointment times and Nourish Rostering gives you a range of options to definitively record and report them to your commissioner with our call monitoring.  

We offer home care providers a range of options for call monitoring. These include one time password (OTP) devices, Near Field Communication (NFC) tags, Landline and a Start/Stop button built into our mobile app. These options enable you to record not only the appointment times, but also the location of your carer when the appointment starts. This information is vital for continually improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your care. Helping you to personalise your support for your community.  

Quality home care helps people stay connected to their community, and quality digital rostering supports home care providers to do exactly that. Care comes in many forms, for many people. Home care providers need to be able to match the needs, abilities and interests of both their carers and their communities to achieve the best results. Nourish Rostering helps you to do this by optimising a variety of data points within our system and enabling you to weight them by relevancy when assigning your team to your appointments.  

These data points include travel distance, carer skills, appointment tasks, previous visits and carer and client preferences. You can then weigh these data points based on their pertinence to your unique approach to care.  

This feature is particularly useful when you need to make quick changes to your schedule. The unexpected is inevitable in home care, and you will need to make last minute adjustments to your rosters. With Nourish Rostering you can make these changes quickly, easily and confidently. Utilising the wealth of information at your fingertips to make sure continuity and quality of care is maintained.  

Of course, to be consistent with care, you need to make sure you are confident in your finances. Most standard digital rostering options focus on precisely that. Giving you an insulated schedule, that doesn’t connect to other aspects of your business. Nourish Rostering addresses this issue with our comprehensive finance suite.  

This connects your digital roster to your timesheets and invoices. Establishing a throughline for your processes and simplifying your administration. You can customise invoices with your own logo and easily export them as required. Our finance functionality also includes a time off tracker that helps you stay on top of your teams holidays. This feature is also available on your carers mobile app so they can easily review and book off work as desired.  

Our mobile app is a powerhouse of functionality for your carers, that will bring energy to your whole operation. As well as helping your carers with time off and call monitoring, it helps your team to capture the information you need on a call. This goes beyond the tasks and medication administration required.  

Our notes offer your team the chance to drive improved outcomes at the point of care. The more information you have available, the better your service can be. Our notes are easy to record and share with administrators, creating a continual feedback loop of care.  

Our mobile app includes dictation functionality, for carers on the go. This also make it easier to involve the people using your support to contribute to their care. Helping you to co-produce care that matches your unique community. 

Nourish Rostering goes beyond the basics of digital rostering functionality. Our system is codeveloped with our users, and for over 10 years has driven positive outcomes in home care across the UK. Balancing the duality of care technology to ensure efficiency never comes at the cost of human experience.  

Compliance is crucial for home care providers. Evidencing compliance is vital for care providers meeting regulations and ensuring compliance is important for providers delivering quality care. Whatever form your regulator takes, or whatever reforms they implement, it is vital you can tell your care story. Home care compliance is particularly important due to the incredibly personal nature of welcoming a carer into your house. It requires a feat of great trust on the part of your customers. A trust that is sacred to the quality of care you provide and the standard of your reputation. Any home care business looking to grow and secure new customers needs to be able to tell their care story effectively. One that shows your compliance with established regulations and ability to support your community. 

The right digital partner can help you capture your care stories and share them with all your stakeholders. This can go beyond your regulator, to your wider circles of care and community. All relationships are defined by the trust you share with each party. Nourish Care gives care providers the tools to capture all the information you need, understand it on both a micro and macro level, and build case studies that show the quality of your care.  

It is vital you capture the right information to tell your care story from your care delivery. Everyday thousands of small acts of personal empowerment are provided through home care. Don’t sell yourself short by letting them slip through your forms! With the right digital care management system you can rest assured your team is recording everything you need.    

Nourish Care records all the information from your team in real time through our app. This simplifies the process of recording, and subsequently reporting, the care you provide. Helping you to tell an accurate care story to your regulator. Home care compliance is further boosted through the audit trail capabilities of our system. This charts all actions on the Nourish platform, giving you a clear timeline of activities. Which in turn ensures care delivered can be easily evaluated to promote quality as well as the right care being delivered to meet people’s needs, wishes and preferences. 

This is particularly important for home care providers who need to report actual appointment times. We offer a selection of call monitoring options, including devices and a start/stop button on our app. This guarantees a wealth of information for your coordinator. Information including the actual appointment times and the location of the sign in, as well as capturing all of the relevant interactions that occur during the appointment.  

Each of the interactions captured during an appointment constitutes a data point. What they ate, when they ate, what exercises they did, where they went, what they drank, how they felt. Nourish automatically plots these data points for you, weaving a tapestry of information on your care delivery for you to share.  

You can use the information Nourish presents you with to identify trends. Trends that unlock a deeper understanding of your care for everyone involved with your service. Your coordinators will be able to comprehend the nature of your care on a range of levels. This provides valuable oversight whether you are a small family-run business or operating as a franchise!  

Crucially, it makes it simpler for you to be able to chart and detail your care for your inspector. Show how you engage, understand and respond to the needs of your community over time. A comprehensive, and comprehensible, overview of your service sets the scene perfectly for the nature of your care. Allowing you to then guide your inspector through specific examples and case studies to acquaint them with the day-to-day reality of your care. 

Case studies are one of the clearest ways to inform people about your approach to care. We have several of them ourselves we’d love you to check out!  

Care is not a static undertaking. Living the life you want is about having the freedom to pursue your interests. Quality home care supports people to do just that. Quality home care software supports providers to record, review and report their life-changing care. 

Nourish gives you the tools to build case studies of the people utilising your service. These case studies detail on a one-to-one level of how you wrap your service around your clients. Demonstrate the unique way you provide care to your community, illustrating how you involve people with support and their circles of care. Document appointments and demonstrate how you respond to your client’s needs as they evolve and develop thanks to your support.  

Our robust home care app makes involving people in their care decisions simple. Voice-to-text technology and note-taking capabilities means your carers can engage directly with your client’s experiences and record them in Nourish. Showing the person-led approach to care that is championed by regulators across the UK and Ireland.  

Home care compliance is more than a box-ticking exercise. It is an opportunity for you to share the incredible care you provide. Too often the true depth of care goes unacknowledged during an inspection. With the right digital home care software you can ensure that every aspect of your outstanding approach is captured.  

Regulations will continue to grow and adapt with time, just as will your service and the communities you support. That’s why it is vital you can tell your care story, utilising home care software you trust. 

At Nourish we work closely with regulators in the UK and Ireland. Learn more from the highlights of our Q&A webinar with the CQC in September. 

We must crawl, walk and then run. However, as many new home care providers know, there’s plenty to trip over on the way to full speed. The journey from start to Outstanding is filled with unique home care challenges. But with the right people, and the right systems, you can face anything. After all, success is a marathon not a sprint. When you look to your future make sure you think long term. Smart investments early in your journey can help save you time, money and hassle as your business expands.  

We’ve put together a list of the 10 most common home care challenges faced by new home care providers with that in mind.  Hopefully it can give you a little guidance when you need it.  

If you would like to talk to us directly about starting your home care journey off strong, contact us here.  

Recruitment and retention are longstanding home care challenges. In Skills for Care’s 2024 State of Care Report there was a vacancy rate of 8.3% in social care jobs. 3 times higher than the national average.  

Addressing recruitment is often a matter of retention. Providing your team with a quality work environment, good conditions and understanding is essential. Investing in your people is as important as investing in your technology. You can create a rising tide of care quality with training, engagement and advancement opportunities for your team.   

Technology can make managing and championing your teams more straightforward too. Whether utilising time off functionality to simplify rostering or eLearning to make developing your skills straightforward for your team. 

Compliance is often intimidating for new home care providers. Getting the information right for your regulator is crucial. You need to be able to tell comprehensive care stories regardless of the imperial initialism haunting your dreams.  

Care management systems support home care providers to do this by recording everything you need in one central location. So, you can not only record, but also review and report your data, for your regulator. This empowers you to tell your care story, and get the rating you deserve. 

We talk in more detail about the importance of compliance in home care here. 

Home care technology offers home care providers the opportunity to ‘future proof’ their business. But what does this increasingly popular buzzword actually mean? 

The right software can help simplify your processes. More than this, it can be used to establish your best practice in an easily replicable, and scalable way. Allowing for simpler onboarding of both new carers and people utilising care.  

A common challenge for home care providers is poor communication and information sharing. Your carers are experts in their experiences. Home care software helps providers to share this expertise and experience across your whole community. 

This includes improving communication with third parties like Local authorities and healthcare services, as well as internally. In the past poor information sharing and ‘information silos’ led to duplication of effort and inconsistent care.  

Care technology addresses this challenge by simplifying the centralisation your information and making it easier to action. 

Maintaining a high standard of care in a home setting can be challenging due to limited resources and oversight. Home care technology offers a range of solutions to address this. The best of which are fully compliant with the digital social care records standards and are listed on the Assured Solutions List. Best practice can be enshrined in your processes and ensured through your system set up.  

Functionality like remote monitoring and warnings help providers to shape and share their best practice across their service. A system like Nourish Care supports home care providers to establish their approach to care, record and review their care application, and continually improve it in line with feedback from their community. 

Home care is unique in many ways. At the core of this approach to care is the nature of appointments. Home carers appreciate the sanctity of someone’s home. Home care providers appreciate the sanctity of someone’s schedule.  

Call monitoring enables carers to record their actual appointment times. Guaranteeing accurate times and locations for appointment starts. This information is vital for reporting to commissioning bodies. It is also useful for feeding back into your own processes to refine and perfect the flow of your carers through your community. 

A schedule is never straightforward in home care. Abrupt changes and unforeseen adjustments are par for the course. Navigating these home care challenges on paper or a digital spreadsheet is incredibly difficult.  

Digital rostering simplifies every step of this process. From set up to rescheduling and reporting, drag and drop rostering systems make adjusting rotas simple. Nourish Care boasts a ‘Recommend’ feature that gathers all the relevant information you have on your carers, including travel time, skills and previous relationship with the person drawing on support.  

Ensuring that whatever spot you’re in, you can make an informed decision. 

Carer burnout is a serious and understandable concern for home care providers. Home care workers can experience stress, emotional fatigue, and physical exhaustion while carrying out their responsibilities.  

As we mentioned in the Recruitment and Retention section, understanding is essential. Digital systems can promote this understanding with communication tools, personal development support and better oversight.  

Balancing costs, invoices and timesheets can be overwhelming. Especially for home care providers who are just starting out.  

There are a number of digital systems that can help you simplify this process. Nourish for home care offers a finance management suite so you can manage payments, organise payroll, and create invoices. We also offer an integration with Sage.  

Centralising your financial processes simplifies their management. It can also help you gain a clearer oversight of your finances and help you make more informed decisions about your future direction.  

Client acquisition will always be a concern for home care providers when starting out. How do you make sure you are attracting enough clients to maintain your business? 

Well, addressing the above home care challenges is a great place to start! 

Digital systems give you better oversight of your care, promoting a deeper understanding of your community and driving improved outcomes for the people who draw on your support. Which will naturally spread the word of your care quality across private buyers and public commissioners alike.  

So, you can build the future you want for your team, your business, and your community, at a pace that suits you. 

If you’d like to learn more about building for your future with Nourish as your digital partner, contact us. 

Conversation is crucial in care. Our understanding is built on our ability to listen. Everyone who provides care is well aware of this dynamic. A lesson we learned over the past ten years by working with our users to improve processes, functionality and outcomes. We are creating our Care Voice Champions to ensure we continue to keep you close to our development process. 

Too often in technology, we have a ‘story in our back pocket’. An experience someone shared with us when we first started developing software solutions. This story is a great starting point, but it can become stale over time. As a result, developers find themselves working closely to the memory of a challenge, rather than the reality. 

Take care notes as an example. The original challenge was digitising a longstanding paper process. The story of carers filling bursting filing cabinets with lonely notebooks echoed in every developer’s ears. This led to several innovations, such as digitising the note-taking process, improving the quality of information available, and making notes easier to review. However, if we stopped talking at this point the innovations would stop too. Thanks to ongoing conversations we developed more specific functionality, like dictation to make recording notes easier, triggers to encourage note-taking at specific times and reporting suites to present the information gathered in more digestible and informative ways. 

We created our Care Voice Champions to keep the conversation going. 

At the start, we plan to communicate monthly. We will review the effectiveness of this approach and adjust the time frame as necessary. Crucially, it will be entirely up to members of the Care Voice Champions group to engage with a specific topic. We do not require or expect every member of the group to engage on every topic. We appreciate how limited care provider’s time is, and we will make sure this process is swift and simple. Starting out, engagement will primarily be conducted through surveys. 

There may be times when we want to have a direct conversation with certain members. These will be requested formally, and well in advance to ensure minimal disruption to your schedule. 

The ultimate goal is to build a continuous cycle of engagement and through that strong collaborative links with our Care Voice Champions. We want to make sure that everyone is involved in our journey as a product. We need to understand how you approach care, how our system supports your approach, and how we can work together to drive better outcomes for everyone involved. 

We know this will not be an easy process. Indeed, we anticipate a few stumbles along the way. That is why it is so important to us to involve you in the process. Stumbling is a natural part of moving forward, just as honest conversations are an essential part of growth. 

If you want to have a more direct hand in our growth, please, join Care Voice Champions. 

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