In health and social care, incidents, such as clinical errors, safeguarding breaches, or behavioural events, can have far-reaching consequences. The immediate concern is always the safety and wellbeing of the individual receiving the care or support. An aspect of incident management we explored in a previous blog. However, the impact on care and support providers themselves is equally significant and often under-recognised. A comprehensive overview and specific understanding of incidents in health and social care is vital for keeping managers informed, providers successful and people safe at every level. More than that, with the right application and culture, incidents become a tool for learning. Turning consequences into learnings, and stubbed toes into forward steps.  

An incident in a care or support setting is more than a momentary disruption. It can trigger a series of operational, emotional, and reputational challenges for providers. Staff may experience stress, guilt, or fear of blame. Highlighting the importance of the work they do, and the responsibilities they bear every day. This emotional toll can lead to burnout, reduced morale, and even staff turnover, further straining already stretched services. 

Operationally, incidents often require immediate response: investigations, reporting to regulatory bodies such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and implementing corrective actions. These processes demand time, resources, and leadership focus. Potentially diverting attention from day-to-day care delivery. For smaller or independent providers, the burden can be particularly acute. Where the ability and time to adequately record, review and address incidents simply isn’t available. Especially if incident information needs to be recorded in siloed, separate systems.  

Beyond the recorded incidents there remain the ‘near misses’. Minor issues that are not reported because people do not recognise their significance or have the time to record them. These are valuable insights often lost to inefficiency. When we are trying to build a complete picture of someone’s life all the pieces matter. There is no room for uninformed assumptions in preventative care and support. 

When talking to care and support providers, we frequently hear about the same challenges. Managing incidents and learning from them is fantastic. However, it is quite challenging to do with siloed information. There simply isn’t the time or system to bring these benefits into the same pathway. The benefits of effective incident management are obvious, but the realities are demanding. Investigations require context, and when so much of what you know about someone is held in different places, that context becomes time-consuming to gather.

Another challenge we discussed focused on evidencing. With regulators, if all they see is a lot of incidents recorded without evidence of responses, they generally view that as a negative. ‘You have a lot of incidents, why is that?’. Quality evidencing demonstrates the quality of your incident management. It became clear that reporting incidents can be a hugely positive thing, if you can demonstrate your response and the learned outcomes. The ability to link incidents to action plans creates a clear understanding of how you are supporting the people utilising your service.

As it stands, this is quite a costly undertaking. In terms of both people and time. Throughout our conversations, we felt it was possible to embed incident management in the care management process at an organisational level. Simplifying processes by building functionality that supports best prastise, and highlights learned outcomes.

The NHS Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) encourages all care providers, including those in the private sector, to adopt a systems-based approach to incident management. This means moving away from blame and towards understanding the root causes of incidents whether they stem from human error, systemic issues, or gaps in training. 

Of course, understanding is easier to desire than attain. Finding the information, the insight and even just the time to review your incidents can be challenging in a health, care or support setting. 

Many care providers face common challenges as a result. Such as a lack of efficient and systematic investigation and learning process. This can lead to difficulties actioning and evidencing learning outcomes from the incidents. Which in turn negatively impacts your service’s ability to upskill teams, identify patterns and plan for the future.  

Embedding a learning culture not only improves safety outcomes but also empowers staff. When care workers feel supported to report concerns and learn from mistakes, the entire organisation becomes more resilient and responsive. Additionally, when the benefits of your learning culture become clear, the buy-in from team members increases significantly. 

A learning culture often starts as an abstract idea. One that must be pulled from the ether through commitment and effort. Which is an awful lot to ask from any health, care or support service!  

The right partner can help you to create a feedback loop of information. Effectively an engine on continuous improvement that operates alongside your service. Informing your team at every step, while being routinely updated. 

Well-designed incident management software helps care and support providers to establish this habit. Well documented and easy to navigate incident reports can be folded into your processes. So, they naturally become a part of your service, from incident, to report, to response to learnings. The accessibility of this information directly influences their impact. It is much easier to include incident notes in a review session when they are available at the click of a button rather than buried in a series of filling cabinets or spread out across multiple siloed systems. 

Crucially, this information builds upon itself over time. Unlocking foresight for your service by establishing and updating trends in your community.

The ability to monitor the present, understand the past and prepare for the future is the key benefit of taking advantage of your care data. With incidents and effective incident management software, you can take control of your data to better support your community from start to finish and back round again. 

Incidents in health and social care are not just isolated events, they are signals. For care and support providers, they offer critical opportunities to reflect, learn, and improve. With the right partner care and support teams can use incident management tools to increase visibility amongst their managers, building confidence in their actions and a library of evidence for regulators. An impact on your service that ripples out throughout your whole community creating a culture of proactive action. One that delivers better results for the people utilising your service, better impact for those providing it, and better business outcomes for you. 

Learn more about how Nourish can help you make the most of every ‘incident’ you have with our upcoming incident management system; Nourish Safety. 

Care and support is always evolving. Medical advances and demographic changes mean that established practices require frequent review. With rising demand, increasing complexity of support needs, and a workforce under pressure, providers are being asked to do more with less. From care and support staffing to funding, providers are feeling the pinch, and the sting goes down the line to the people they support. Fortunately, technology is always evolving too, and in some co-produced cases, it’s helping support solutions. 

At the heart of the workforce challenges facing social care lies a simple truth, you can’t staff effectively if you don’t understand the needs of the people you support. That’s where dependency assessments can make a big difference. By systematically measuring the evolving needs of the people supported, providers can make informed care and support staffing decisions that are both efficient and person-centred. 

Care and support staffing isn’t just about numbers. It’s about matching the right skills, at the right time, to the right people. Yet, many providers still rely on static staffing models or gut instinct to determine how many team members are needed on a shift. This approach can lead to overstaffing during quiet periods or, more worryingly, understaffing when needs are high. 

This issue is particularly acute in elderly care, where residents’ conditions can change rapidly. One resident recovering from surgery may need intensive support for a few weeks. While another with progressing dementia may require increasing supervision and emotional care. Without a clear, up-to-date picture of these needs, care teams are left to react rather than plan. An issue that presents itself both at the point of care delivery, and in the head office. 

The UK’s social care sector is already under immense strain. As of 2024, Skills for Care research showed there were over 131,000 vacancies in adult social care in England alone. With recent government decisions to significantly reduce overseas recruitment for care staffing, the pressure on domestic recruitment intensified. In this context, making every staffing decision count goes beyond good practice. It’s a matter of survival for both the person drawing support, and the business providing it. 

Let’s take for example, a mid-sized care home in the Midlands. The manager noticed that her team was increasingly stretched during the evening shift. Complaints about delayed assistance were rising, and staff morale was dipping. 

The manager decided to trial a structured care and support assessment for one resident who had recently returned from hospital after a fall. The assessment revealed that the resident now required assistance with mobility, toileting, and medication. Needs that had previously been minimal. 

This insight prompted the manager to adjust the evening rota slightly. A change which ensured a senior carer was available to support the resident during peak hours. As a result, the resident received timely care, staff felt less overwhelmed, and the overall quality of care improved. 

The assessment opened a new perspective on the needs, and the resources, of the care community. It allowed the manager to better understand both their team and their resident. 

Crucially, the care and support assessment didn’t just help one resident. It highlighted a broader issue. The home’s care staffing model hadn’t kept pace with residents’ changing needs. 

What the manager discovered with that specific resident was just the tip of the iceberg of what a level of need assessment tool can unlock in care and support settings. When we widen our scope to a whole service we can see the potential impact increase significantly. The right digital tool will help you track the support and staffing needs of your service with accuracy and efficiency. 

You can also improve your team’s satisfaction by reducing burnout and ensuring fair workloads with more efficient care and support staffing. All of which feed into the efficiency, effectiveness and understanding of your service. Enhancing care quality by ensuring residents received the right support at the right time, from the right people. 

This is the power of measuring care and support needs at scale. It transforms care and support staffing from a reactive challenge into a proactive strategy. 

Transparent, data-driven tools can make a huge difference. Designed to help providers track and visualise the evolving needs of those they support. The best systems offer a clear, real-time picture of care and support levels across a service. This empowers managers to make confident, data-informed decisions about staffing, care and support planning, and resource allocation. 

Unlike traditional paper-based assessments or ad hoc reviews, dynamic, data-driven systems can integrate fluidly into daily workflows. We know it’s not just about ticking boxes, it’s about creating a culture of responsive, person-centred care.  

Knowledge is power and siloing the knowledge you have available to you drains the power of your service. Integrations build connections across your systems to centralise your information and expand your perspective. When your level of need system can talk to your care management system, it is able to inform your care plans. This creates a comprehensive and accessible picture of the people utilising your support. Ultimately helping to drive improved outcomes across your service.  

Connections continue to define care and support as the sector digitises. Much like the crucial connections in your community, the connections in your technology rely on open communication. This is the key benefit of integrations and a core focus here at Nourish. If you are looking to further digitise your processes there are a wealth of options for a range of functions. Picking systems that integrate helps you avoid replacing a physical filling cabinet with a digital one. Instead giving you a robust, interlinked digital ecosystem to support your community. If you’d like to learn more about partners Nourish integrates with check out the Nourish Partnership Programme. 

In a sector where every minute and every resource counts, understanding the needs of your community isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. Care and support assessments provide the clarity needed to make smarter staffing decisions, improve outcomes, and support your team. From the quality of life of an individual utilising your service, to the overall efficiency and viability of your businesses finances! 

As the UK social care sector navigates a period of profound change, it is important to have people you trust. At Nourish we are building for the future alongside our users, coproducing relevant, effective technology throughout. We are guided by experienced insight, not guesswork. When we work together, and measure what matters, we can build the right systems together, with the right people, to provide the best care all the way down the line. 

Want to find out more about a structured and objective approach to assessing people’s evolving needs? Ensuring that care and support plans remain aligned with real-world requirements? Read more about Nourish Transparency, our new product innovation, coming soon. 

Life happens in moments. What seems small can be significant, what seems substantial can become an afterthought. Whatever form these moments take, in health, care and support services, they speak to the reality of the experience for the person utilising the service. These moments, or as they are more commonly known ‘incidents’ and ‘accidents’ can be incredibly illustrative. Our ability to understand, record and review these ‘incidents’ has a direct impact on the quality of life for the people supported, the people supporting, and everyone else involved in the service. It is from this baseline of understanding that we can begin to build our responses. By learning from previous experiences to establish proactive and preventative processes.  

In health and social care, an incident refers to any unintended or unexpected event that could have or did lead to harm for one or more individuals receiving care or support, team members, or the organisation itself. Which is quite a broad definition! This includes both clinical and non-clinical events. Ranging from medication errors, falls or behavioural events, to breaches of confidentiality or equipment failures.  

The impact of incidents can be profound. Physically, individuals may suffer injury, deterioration in health, or delayed recovery. Mentally, the impact can reach even further. Health and care are intrinsically human experiences from every perspective. Anyone involved in the incident may experience anxiety, loss of trust, or trauma. Research by NHS England highlights that unresolved incidents can lead to long-term psychological effects such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in both patients and healthcare professionals. 

Effective incident management is therefore essential. Prompt reporting, thorough investigation, and transparent communication are key to safeguarding individuals and maintaining public confidence. The NHS Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) emphasises learning from incidents to prevent recurrence and improve care quality. 

Information is at the heart of preventative care and support. Information attained by care and support workers every day. The proper recording, reviewing and response to incidents can be transformational for service quality and outcomes. 

Quality incident management is a benefit in all care and support settings. However, there are a range of challenges facing providers on this front as well. In the moment of an incident, the natural priority falls on addressing it, rather than recording it. For example, take a fall. You want to immediately support the person who fell. So you can begin recording the information about the fall and the person’s condition, rather than what caused it. This is one of the key reasons why underreporting of incidents remains a challenge for providers.

Some of this information is highly person as well. Which means you need to record it as confidential. Something that is not always a fluid criteria to apply and switch between when using paper, or standalone systems.

In fact, standalone systems can also counterintuitively replicate the issues of disconnection that exist with paper-based systems. When the information is siloed, as in a standalone system, it can be difficult to connect it back to the support you are providing. Which makes the vital incident management you are doing ineffective for driving improved outcomes for the people being supported.

Ultimately, this can reduce the purpose of incident management amongst your team. When people can’t see the benefits of their actions or understand the ‘why?’ of their efforts, enthusiasm drops. With so much to do already, the value of incident management becomes lost in the shuffle of siloed information.

At Nourish we’ve been working closely with our customers to develop a new Incident Management solution. One which puts the person supported at the heart of the process. Offering an efficient, easy to use solution for event logging at the point of care and beyond, to escalation and management. Creating a clear throughline of events that is easy to develop, manage and learn from. We spoke to Anna Goscombe, Director of Quality & Therapeutic Services at IBC Healthcare, about their experience helping us to develop this new product.  

“For a whole host of reasons, [our] incident detail wasn’t good enough. Or sometimes it was delayed because information was siloed on different platforms. This all meant you couldn’t rely completely on the accuracy of the data. Or you couldn’t respond quick enough. So again, for all those reasons Nourish improves the quality of service that we’re providing to the person we support because we’ve got a better handle and a better management of incidents. We can better map the trends.  

“What I mean when I say map trends, is that we can really understand the full picture. For example, ‘what might be the triggers here for this person?’ or ‘Is it specifically happening in the home? Is it specifically in the community where most incidents are occurring?’ 

“For example, you can see how many restrictive physical interventions there have been. You can check important factors like if any restraints were used. We can then review previous data and see there were three restraints this month. But there was none for the last two months. Clearly something’s happened.” 

This level of detail unlocks whole new worlds of insight for you to share across your service and community. 

Prevention is born of proactivity, and effective proactivity is beholden to accurate information. With quality incident reporting IBC are able to better understand the needs of their community. The specific point on restraints can be folded into the wider comprehension of that person’s experience. Their diet, their interests, their sleep pattern, all vital updates of experience that help your team notice trends. 

These trends hold the key to providing preventative, quality care and support. As Anna explained to us. 

“It is crucial we can notice those things and be able to record triggers like that when providing LD and mental health services. It’s important to do it, but also important to do it in a in a timely manner. Local authorities, placing authorities, commissioners, they all expect it. They expect us to analyse that sort of data, but also to foresee any potential risk or escalation in incidents.  

“More than that, we expect it of ourselves. Understanding incidents, even something as basic as that can potentially prevent a hospital readmission, or discharge to another service or staff burnout.” 

Keeping teams and communities together can be incredibly challenging in modern care and support environments. Quality incident management can help you meet this challenge. Of course, as always, the success will be determined by the people involved. 

It should be obvious by now how important your team members are to this process. They will be the ones at the coalface of this process. It is vital that your care and support teams play an active role in incident management and reporting. One where they can see directly the benefits of their effort and take pride in the positive outcomes they deliver. This cannot be achieved without a positive, reinforcing learning culture. 

The PSIRF advises a move away from blame and towards understanding the root causes of incidents. Whether they stem from human error, systemic issues, or gaps in training. The focus on addressing the issue, rather than punishing the cause. With a collaborative and an intuitive, user-friendly system you can engage your team and engender their sense of pride. This adds a tangible personal impact to the weight of their daily workload. Naturally, effective incident management takes time and practise to establish. It’s important to appreciate that everyone has an influential part to play to get it right. 

‘Incidents’ and ‘accidents’ are broad terms for a wealth of specific events. Each one of these events, from the small to the substantial, help you better understand your service, and the community it supports. The accuracy and availability of this information trickles through to every other area. Showering the relevant parties with the information they need. Whether they’re at the point of delivery or in the back office. A single stumble can reflect a worsening trend. A quiet smile can reveal a forgotten passion. Every slip can inform your next step, and every step forward will empower your community. 

Learn more about how Nourish can help you make the most of every ‘incident’ you have with our upcoming incident management system; Nourish Safety, there isn’t a moment to lose. 

Care data is two words with three syllables and hundreds of missed opportunities. Over the past five years, the care sector has undergone a significant digital transformation. This shift generated an immense amount of data for care providers, offering unprecedented opportunities to enhance care delivery. Every data point gathered in care represents a unique interaction, a personal impact and a human being. Vital threads in the tapestry of our communities. However, as a result, many small and medium-sized providers find themselves with a wealth of data but without the resources to effectively act upon it.

Enter ‘Nourish Insights‘, our revelatory data utilisation product that enables carers to effortlessly review and act upon their data. Built with a Power BI integration, Insights offers care providers a range of predefined dashboards detailing key areas of their care delivery. Equipping your team with the tools to drill down into specific data for more detailed information on your service. Our dashboards are developed through coproduction with Nourish users, ensuring they focus on the data that unlocks the past, informs the present and shapes the future of your care.  

Insights helps care and support providers make sense of their past by presenting all the data gathered by their teams in an easily digestible format. Managers can review data from a top-down perspective with the respective dashboard overview. This comprehensive view details all the relevant, available data you have gathered across your service. Which, utilising Power BI, is presented in an easy to understand and exportable format. Additionally, each dashboard offers a selection of more detailed views or ‘pages’ of your data so you can drill down on the points that matter to you. A journey that begins on a timeline of your previous month can end as specifically as the word count on a single care plan. Allowing care homes to reflect on their practices and make informed decisions based on historical data. 

Care is all about understanding, a power that comes from knowledge. Insights updates regularly, ensuring that providers have all the information they need, accurate and at their fingertips. This enables managers to review data from anywhere. Providing you with the flexibility and context to manage your communities confidently. When used in conjunction with Nourish Better Care’s interactions, our powerful data capture functionality, you can rest assured you have everything you need from your digital platform to provide outstanding care and support. Because it is all right in front of you when you need it.  

Insights not only helps care providers understand their past and present but also prepares them for the future. By revealing trends over time, Insights uncovers details of care that might otherwise be overlooked or forgotten in the bottom of a filing cabinet. The functionality unlocks powerful preventative applications of the data you possess. This foresight allows providers to monitor trends and take proactive actions to drive better outcomes and continuously improve your quality of care. Moving your care from treatment to prevention, in line with the government’s ambitions for the NHS. The ability to anticipate future needs and challenges is invaluable in promoting independence in your care community. As well as supporting the people utilising your service to achieve their personal aims. 

Crucially, Insights includes the ability to share the information you are reviewing. This makes it an excellent tool for evidencing compliance with regulatory requirements and bodies. Care and support providers can export and print the dashboard views they want to share with ease. This capability ensures that care homes can confidently showcase their commitment to quality care, and the actions they have taken to provide it. 

To illustrate the power of Insights, let’s review the care and support planning dashboard. This board provides an overview of all your service’s care plans. It further details the status of these plans in a range of ways, such as highlighting those with a high level of need or overdue reviews. Managers can drill down into specific dashboard pages and data points to understand patterns and identify areas for improvement.

This targeted approach enables users to apply filters to the data, such as person supported or a team member. From here you can view specific care plans or see an overview of care plans linked to a specific person. For example, you can review every care plan associated with one of your carers or person with support, check their details and even go straight to a specific care plan on your Nourish system. This helps care providers to apply their focus where the most emphasis is needed.  

Nourish Insights offers a range of dashboards including; ‘Warnings’, ‘Weight Monitoring’ and ‘Critical Information’. All Nourish customers have access to two Insights dashboards for free, our Overview Dashboard and our Skin and Integrity Dashboard. So you can explore this powerful functionality for yourself.  

If you would like to learn more, please contact your Account Manager directly.   

Nourish Insights harnesses the power of data for care and support providers, presenting it in an easily understandable and actionable format. This empowers you to take control of your time and resources, enabling you to deliver the best care and support possible. By understanding the past, staying aware of the present, and preparing for the future, you can continuously improve your services. Driving improved outcomes for everyone in your community, and ensuring you never miss an insight, or an opportunity, again. 

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.”

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. 

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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When Wes Streeting announced his three key shifts for the National Health Service (NHS) at the Labour Party Conference at the end of September social care’s ears were burning. A move from analogue to digital, hospital to community and sickness to prevention is a move towards care. Clearly social care has a big part to play in the future of the NHS. And technology plays a crucial role in the future of social care. When applied correctly digital solutions empower us to improve both efficiency and outcomes. Which offers care technology a central role in the government’s ongoing attempts to stage a digital revolution in health and care. We all know the why, given social care’s enduring challenges. It is uncovering the precise, who, what, when, and how of the matter that remains something of a mystery.  

We recently headline sponsored the Home Care Association (HCA)’s Tech & Homecare conference. A day of insights, inquisition and understanding for leading home care providers and technology suppliers. On the day our CMO, Lee Gilbert, hosted a panel featuring a who’s who of digital rostering and AI suppliers discussing data, while The King’s Fund’s Pritesh Mistry joined HCA’s CEO Dr Jane Townson OBE to ask, ‘How can technology solutions help move care closer to home?’. The latter a conversation underpinned by the recently published, Nourish Care sponsored, study exploring ‘The reality of, and potential for, digitally enabled care in the community’. Reflecting the collaborative spirit of co-development that defines modern, outstanding care, these conversations detailed a variety of ongoing efforts to move social care from analogue to digital. Their success, their missteps, and the road still ahead. 

Chair: Lee Gilbert, CMO, Nourish 
Nuno Almeida, CEO, Nourish 
Steve Sawyer, Managing Director, Access Group 
Robin Batchelor, CEO, everyLife Technologies 
Matthew Bond, CEO, Borderless 
Abeed Mohammed, Co-founder, Birdie

There is already a wealth of positive examples of technology improving care quality. Providers applied digital solutions to a selection of the challenges they face. Both The King’s Fund research, and each of the panellists, presented their own positive instances. Pritesh detailed several different, key, areas that are already befitting from digital solutions, such as communication, care co-ordination and personalisation. Dr Townson added to this during their conversation, highlighting some Local Authority’s recent adoption of ‘magic notes’ as an example of technology changing people’s lives. 

The panel built upon these cases with a specific focus on utilising existing data in systems. Matt Bond shared how Borderless share and aggregate data to pass benefits to individual people by finding the gaps in your existing service. The other four panellists all pointed to the efficiency their respective rostering platforms bring to care providers. When Robin Batchelor brought attention to the current inflection point in care technology it resonated around the room. Nuno Almeida agreed, “We’ve spent 14 years building the foundations. It’s not rocket science; the rocket science lies in your ability to react to needs.” 

That is the crux of the matter, when we move from analogue to digital, we have to retain our focus on people’s needs. The ability to react to these needs is defined by our ability to engage with them. One of the biggest fears about moving from analogue to digital is based in the apprehension of losing the human touch that has always guided health and care in the UK. A fact reflected in two of the recommendations from the King’s Fund’s research. The need to ‘Shift culture to embrace the public’s digital capability’ and ‘Support staff to embed tech in their roles’. Neither of which are groundbreaking discoveries, but do require fresh ideas to address. Such as Scottish Care’s Care Technologist role. We know the potential of carers, their adaptability and commitment to any idea that can improve outcomes for their community.  

What we need to do is make engaging with, and championing, care technology a simpler process. Which is not something that can be done overnight. “Asking people what is important to them is the biggest gap in our data,” admitted Nuno during the panel. “But this is also a big opportunity for us, asking, ‘What will really make a difference?’” The more we can involve people in the design process, the more ‘frontline’ feedback we can apply to our development. This co-production keeps people at the heart of care technology, which is crucial as we move to put technology at the heart of care.

Dr Townson concisely summarised this issue during her talk with Pritesh. ‘Technology for technology’s sake is not progress’. Innovation cannot be disruption in care, the standard approach for technology entering a new sector. The responsibilities are too great. We have to understand the barriers and develop enablers for adoption in the workforce and communities they support. Any one software solution aiming to promote wrap around care and support needs to ask itself a simple question. ‘How will the care providers work alongside our tech?’ 

Pritesh highlighted the need for this focus in his research with The King’s Fund. One of the recommendations from this research underlines the need to ‘develop strategies for co-developing digitally enabled services’. Specifically raising the point that developing a strategy for co-development and patient-led service design will help to direct digital service development and strategy. While this suggestion calls for action from ICSs, ICPs, the NHS and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), it speaks to all digital suppliers and providers in social care. The move from analogue to digital in care must involve people at every step, or it is sure to get lost.

Nuno spoke about the need to ‘crawl, walk, then run, to get to data quality’. A process that rings true for all forms of digital technology. When The King’s Fund recommends ‘A national vision to guide local decisions’ it is not calling for a direct mandate. It is asking for a personalisable framework. ‘A guiding national vision, with local flexibility as to how it is achieved. One that will help to align the efforts of technology innovators, health and care providers, and leaders designing improved community-based services.’  

The HCA’s conference was an example of just that endeavour. A selection of leaders, creators and providers sharing experiences and ambitions to help shape the future of care as we move from analogue to digital. One based in the commitment to collaboration that makes care the beating heart of our communities. After all, if you’re going to solve a mystery machine, it’s best to do it with a gang. 

Growth is a winding road. In October 2023 Nourish Care acquired CarePlanner Home Care Software. The merger brought together two leading social care software solutions for care homes and home care respectively. More than this, it brought together two teams who already shared a philosophy for collaborative software development, and a passion for supporting care providers on their digital journey. Over the past year we combined experiences, shared perspectives and continued to develop best in class functionality for our users, alongside our users, to drive better outcomes for everyone involved. 

To celebrate an incredible 12 months, we caught up with some of the old guard from CarePlanner. We discussed the past year, what they’ve been up to, and why they’re excited for what’s still to come. 

Combining two companies is a large, but delicate process. One that requires balancing different teams, responsibilities and skills with new opportunities and ambitions. CarePlanner’s Operations Director, now Nourish’s Director of Operational Excellence, Mark Gutteridge was instrumental throughout this transition.  

“I oversaw the nuts and bolts side of bringing the two businesses together,” explained Mark. “Things like the processes, the way we work, the policies, making sure everything was aligned. That was the first six months. Since March of this year, my team are responsible for streamlining processes, putting in place new systems, and helping the business remain efficient as we continue to grow and onboard new customers. 

“It was a big undertaking, and our guiding philosophy throughout was making sure we always asked the question ‘Why?’. It was a key case of prioritizing what was important and what would make a difference to our users. We brought the two companies together so we would both be stronger. We really wanted to deliver on that potential. 

“There’s always a teething period with substantial changes like this. But once things settled down the benefits became obvious.  We used to say to ourselves that CarePlanner wanted to do a lot of things, but they didn’t always happen as swiftly as we’d like. When you look at how swiftly we’re launching new features like our eLearning solution now it’s inspiring. We’re able to respond much more quickly and effectively to our users and their experiences. I think that it’s been crucial in terms of making sure we continue to support our users and provide a market-leading product and service. Which is a really exciting place to be.” 

Understanding is central to building anything effectively. At Nourish and CarePlanner Home Care Software that understanding has always come from our users. Both companies boast team members with care experience. The combination of our Product teams, along with some experienced new leadership joining the fold, sharpened our focus, while at the same time unlocking whole new ideas to explore.   

“The new structure builds upon our established user led approach with a wealth of experience and clinical expertise,” explained Product Manager Robert Baker. “Their focus on the clinical safety and the clinical side of the product is invaluable. It empowers us to understand the best practice around our software so we can shape our functionality to best respond to our user’s needs. We always want to stay as close to the lived experience of care as possible. Because it helps us tailor Nourish to the specific needs and use cases, some of which we’d never discover on our own! 

“Fundamentally, the new structure keeps us focused on outcomes. Our attention is firmly on the problems we need to solve. Our teams have the resources and autonomy to respond to customer’s needs in a way that was previously unattainable. This means we can focus on developments for all sides of the Nourish platform, and any of the care types we support, with established care contacts and personal experience to guide us.” 

Product teams focused on how to capitalise on our future opportunities to improve outcomes for our users. However, there remained the sizable task of bringing together the functionality the two companies already built for their respective platforms. We spoke to Lead Developer Martin Joiner about how they addressed this undertaking, and the benefits of bringing fresh eyes and open minds to old challenges.  

“When we first joined together we were faced with two pieces of software with a lot of unique functionality,” explained Martin. CarePlanner’s home care software and Nourish’s residential. So, it was important to find the denominators. There are a lot of similarities between the systems as well. Features repeated across many platforms like: What does a profile look like? What information does it contain? How is an address formatted? General architecture like that. Lining these points up is a lot of work, but it is vital. We took small steps, one at a time to ensure we aligned the systems closely while still retaining the strengths of the previous structures. 

“Of course, just like in care, the real strength came from our people. With so many new people to talk to and work with there are so many opportunities to share best practice. We can ask ‘Why?’ whenever our curiosity is peaked and learn from each other. There are few things better for a problem than fresh eyes and informed opinions. We all value understanding why we are building something. And this close relationship with the purpose of our development process is reflected throughout Nourish’s tech teams. Another key denominator that has shaped our success over the past year. Leading to new developments like TARS, Time Off and eLearning for Nourish home care users.” 

Even on the technical level we find ourselves coming back to the importance of aligning on a human one. Personal connections define us all, especially when it comes to building productive, collaborative relationships in every aspect of our business. A maxim held true in both Nourish and CarePlanner. 

CarePlanner Home Care Software may have been the industry standard for rostering technology. However, its reputation was built on more than technology, it was built on relationships. Nourish shares that focus on personal connections. A prerequisite requirement for the merger, and a substantial relief to the customer-facing teams on both sides of the acquisition.  

“As Account Managers our first focus is always on the customers,” said Head of Account Managers Lauren Ware. “We build close connections with our customers because all Account Managers have dedicated accounts they work with. It delighted us to learn Nourish has the same approach. Thanks to the resources Nourish brings to bear on sector challenges our functionality and integrations have gone from strength to strength over the past year. This empowers Account Managers to unlock new opportunities for our users, and address long-standing challenges.  

“It’s one thing to be told your philosophy aligns with another company, it’s a different thing to see it for yourself. Care is a fundamentally human undertaking. For all the changes the sector and we experienced over the past few years, that remains the constant. In Nourish we found partners who share that focus, and the results speak for themselves.” 

The driving impetus of the acquisition was to make both solutions stronger. A combination of experience and insight to drive positive outcomes internally and externally for both businesses. One of the biggest changes this caused was for our support teams, whom we combined and specialised to best respond to our users in a timely and effective fashion. 

“Bringing together the best of both Nourish and CarePlanner Support teams has been an exciting journey,” detailed Head of Technical Support Cian Connolly. “One that has strengthened our focus on what matters most, our customers. Over time, as the dust of the merger settled, we came to understand the needs of users and the strengths of our colleagues. This inspired us to develop two teams, Customer Support and Technical Support. 

“With the move to dedicated Customer Support and Technical Support teams, we’re positioned to provide faster, more tailored solutions. Ensuring every interaction is both meaningful and effective. I’m incredibly proud of our team’s commitment and am excited for the future as we continue to raise the bar for customer experience in care technology!” 

CarePlanner Home Care Software belongs to the past. But the people, platform and purpose that shaped it for over a decade remain in place. Committed to the same goals, and the same communities to whom we have always owed allegiance. Nourish is now the largest supplier of social care software solutions in the UK. With over 400k people supported through Nourish and 350k carers driving positive outcomes for their communities every day. A responsibility we all take great pride and purpose in. 

The future remains an open horizon, and we have some fantastic company, and a stellar company, to join us on the journey. 

Why don’t you come too?