Community and collaboration are central to our approach to care technology and Nourish. We depend upon the insight and experience of our users to shape our future. That is at the core of a true digital partnership in social care, co-production. At this year’s Nourish Customer Conference, hosted in the gorgeous Goodwood House, we came together with care professionals, partners and the wider Nourish community for a day centred around collaboration, innovation and shared purpose.

Our recap video captures the atmosphere, ambition and energy of the event. Highlighting the insightful presentations and product discussions. As well as the moments of connection that happen in between sessions.

The conference was an opportunity to reflect on how technology, partnership and co-production continue to shape the future of social care. Throughout the day, attendees explored new ideas, shared experiences from across the sector and discussed the challenges and opportunities facing care providers today.

One of the strongest themes throughout the Goodwood House Nourish Customer Conference was the importance of working together.

The day showcased the collaborative spirit that continues to drive the development of the Nourish digital ecosystem. From product roadmap discussions to shared experiences from care organisations across the UK. The day reinforced the value of listening, learning and building together.

This commitment to co-production remains central to how we approach innovation at Nourish. We work with providers to ensure that the technology we create is shaped by the real experiences of the people delivering and utilising care every day.

Attendees explored emerging developments across the Nourish platform, including data, AI, transparency and safety. In addition to broader discussions around the future of care technology and operational sustainability.

As with previous Nourish events, the focus was not simply on showcasing technology, but on understanding how digital tools can support better outcomes, stronger communities and more person-centred care.

The energy of the Nourish Customer Conference was electric. It reflected the optimism and momentum shared by everyone who attended.

Social care continues to face significant challenges. But events like the Goodwood House Nourish Customer Conference remind us of the innovation, compassion and expertise that exists across the sector. By bringing together people with shared values and a shared ambition to improve lives, we can continue building technology and support systems that genuinely make a difference.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at Goodwood House and helped make the day such a success. We’re excited for what comes next and look forward to continuing the conversation together.

Digital technology has rooted itself in social care over the past few years. There are a lot of options for care providers looking for digital social care software, ranging in size, shape and functionality. 80% of providers have some form of digital social care records, with more digitising every month. This shows the adaptability of the care sector as it utilises new tools to address long standing challenges. However, with these new tools come new challenges too, and many providers are starting to realise not just the power of using digital technology, but the potential of using the right digital technology. 

Finding the right technology is like finding the right people. You must know who you are and what you want, to get what your service needs. Are you looking for cutting edge innovations and reporting to transform your processes? Do you want to shape your system to your community and improve how you engage with the people you support’s circle of care? Is reliability, in both technology and people, your focus? Does your system adhere to the 14 DSCR standards?

Your requirements list may include all of these and so much more, your current digital system may meet some of your requirements but might fall down in other areas. It’s important to review whether your current system is working for your service and if there might be a better system out there that truly enhances the important work you do. In this blog we cover why it might be time for you to switch to Nourish. 

Social care is in a state of change. Departed from the old standards but still developing its true form. This can breed uncertainty as much as excitement for digital social care software users. That is why Nourish are always engaging with decision makers, researchers and care sector leaders to make sure our user’s voices are heard. We have consistently led the way for digital innovations in care at both the technical and legislative level. Nourish were the first digital social care records system to join the NHS England Assured Solutions List, as we wanted to make it as easy as possible for care providers to go digital. We are fully compliant with all 14 DSCR standards released by Digitising Social Care last year. Additionally, we are the first supplier to attain level 3 conformance against the Professional Records Standards Body’s (PRSB) standards for personalised care and support planning.  

We lead the discussion about future developments of digital social care through our role with Care Software Providers Association (CASPA). While taking steps to innovate the relationships between existing software suppliers in social care with our Partnership Programme. We accept it is not possible to know for sure what form the future will take. But it is well within our powers to prepare for it.   

One of the major benefits of increased digital system application in social care comes from how we use our data. Every interaction generates data, each appointment, activity and report. Many care providers are sitting on a wealth of information with no way to spend it on the people they support. Nourish’s robust reporting suite empowers users to take control of their data. We give you the tools to identify trends, respond accordingly and review the success of these changes. With more information at their fingertips coordinators and carers can respond effectively to the needs of the people drawing upon your service, in a safe, well led manner. 

We include several prebuilt dashboards within our system, to help our users get what they need. These dashboards can become a cornerstone or a starting off point for your team’s application of data. We want to demystify digital and help everyone in your organisation use a digital system to improve human care.  

Care is human and so are we. That might seem like a strange thing for a software supplier to proclaim. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from years of developing technology, it’s that people drive everything. That’s why people remain central to the Nourish experience. With us, there is always a human on hand to help. From your onboarding stages, through to our comprehensive Customer Success Managers and support teams. We maintain a high standard for user experience and support because we appreciate the people that drive social care. For all the impressive and effective technical advancements we make, there are some things that will always require a personal touch.  

The people who utilise your service require a personal touch too. We know that no two care providers are the same. Geography, demography, psychography, the number of varying factors is off the charts! That’s why Nourish is built to be customisable. You can match your system to your service and ensure it delivers exactly what you need. This customisability empowers your team to provide truly person-centred care, with more information and less effort than ever before! There’s no need to force your community to fit into a box off the shelf. Our team will work with you during your onboarding to make sure Nourish is set up exactly how you want it to be. We can even help introduce you to new features and functionality that align with your service! 

Introductions can be tricky things in fairness. Especially when it comes to those we love. With the increase in digital social care solutions there has been an increase in accessibility. Naturally, interested family members and friends are curious to learn more about the care their loved one receives. Family portals offer a great opportunity to share this insight. However, it can also be a challenge. With Nourish you stay in control. Welcome people into the world of care you provide, while still maintaining control over what they can and can’t see. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution in care, but thanks to our customisability you can easily find the size that fits your community. 

Of course, you only want the people with invitations to have access to your system. Security is paramount to us here at Nourish. With 83 million rostered appointments in last 12 months in home care and 10 million residential data records updated on care plans every day in Nourish we know how crucial security is and we are dedicated to protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your system. 

Nourish backs up data continuously to a cloud-based system. We do not use onsite data stores and all our cloud-provided solutions are backed up automatically and built into our disaster recovery plan and testing. This ensures the highest standard of security for the data of our users and the people they support. 

We worked with the PRSB to develop standards for social care. We are also fully ISO 27001:2022 certified in line with Local Authority commissioning best practice and Cyber Essentials Plus certified. 

Digital social care systems have come a long way in the past few years. So have the people using them. Digital literacy is at an all-time high, and care providers are experienced enough to ask software suppliers detailed questions they wouldn’t have thought of previously. These are important questions to finding the right system for your service, and ones we’d be delighted to answer if you contact us.  

With so many options available to care providers today, is it time for you to branch out? 

We all understand the importance of valuing and respecting those we care for, when we speak about how you can truly deliver dignity in care, it might be hard to conjure up an exact idea of what that really means or looks like. Luckily Dignity in Care has come up with the 10 Dignity Do’s. An easy list that describes the values and actions of a high-quality care service that respects and upholds people’s dignity to the highest standard.

1. Have a zero tolerance of all forms of abuse

2. Support people with the same respect you would want for yourself or a member of your family

3. Treat each person as an individual by offering a personalised service

4. Enable people to maintain the maximum possible level of independence, choice and control

5. Listen and support people to express their needs and wants

6. Respect people’s right to privacy

7. Ensure people feel able to complain without fear of retribution

8. Engage with family members and carers as care partners

9. Assist people to maintain confidence and positive self-esteem

10. Act to alleviate people’s loneliness and isolation

A Dignity Champion is a person who believes that being treated with dignity is a basic human right, not an optional extra. They believe that care provision must be: compassionate, person-centred, efficient and effective, and are willing to take action in order to achieve this.

Dignity Champions are those in a care organisation that champion and uphold the 10 Dignity Do’s, as well as advocate and share the importance of dignity in any form of care. This includes:

1) Standing up and challenging disrespectful behaviour 

2) Acting as role models by treating other people with respect, particularly those who are more vulnerable

3) Raising issues regarding dignity to improve the way that services are organised and delivered

4) Influencing and informing colleagues on best practice 

5) Listening to and understanding the views and experiences of those in care

You can find out more about becoming a dignity champion and the 10 Dignity Do’s by visiting Dignity in Care’s becoming a champion or register page. Another helpful resource is the Dignity Champion’s Toolkit for Action, which includes actionable insights, ideas and advice for people in a range of different care roles to help make a difference and bring dignity to care.

There are many ways that the Dignity Do’s can help care groups, teams and organisations improve their level of care and adapt to offer a continuously improving level of service. Championing the Dignity Do’s is only the start, we believe that in order to provide the highest quality care, moving to digital care planning enables you to create personalised care plans, record care accurately at the time of providing care and understand and act on trends about those you care for. By using digital, you can be much more efficient and spend more time providing person-centred, quality care.

To find out how care software and technology can be used to enhance your care service, or help you to better care for those you support, book a demo with the team.

Digital technology is a key part of the future of social care. A future the majority of care providers have already embraced. Digital social care records are a common sight, and many users are familiar with the benefits and potential of digital technology. Benefits that vary from platform to platform. The decision is no longer about finding a digital platform, but about finding the right digital platform for your service. An increase in digital literacy and skills experienced across the social care workforce, as well as the heightened standards for membership on the Assured Solutions List, has led many providers to reconsider their care management platforms, and shop around for new options before switching digital social care records systems.  

If you are shopping around for a better platform for your service but are concerned about the process of switching to a new digital social care records system, we understand. The change from one digital platform to another is not the same as ‘going digital’ in the first place.  

We put together this blog, based on our extensive experience onboarding users to our platform, to help familiarise care providers with the realities of switching digital platform. 

As with all things in care technology, and all things in care in general, people play the defining role. Switching systems is not going to be seamless. The simple reality of the technology is there is no small combination of clicks that will move your database from one system to another. They are not built for it. That’s why people still define the experience. 

Our user support teams, from onboarding, to client success and support have years of digital care experience. As well as many of us having started our careers in care. We understand the challenges of changing on both a technical and emotional level. 

Switching digital social care records means different things for different providers. Much like when first picking a system, the process is shaped by your unique service. Our experienced teams will take the time to get to know what makes you unique, guiding you through the transition.  

Our focus is on collaboration, throughout all stages of your Nourish Care experience. We are active participants alongside you, to ensure you retain everything you need from your previous records and can apply it appropriately to the features of your new system. This collaborative process helps reduce the impact of the transition on your teams and the people utilising your service, especially for larger providers with multiple branches. 

It is vital you have the records you need, when you need them. Our focus on collaboration means you can highlight the hierarchy of information you need transferred, in a secure, and reliable way. Throughout this process it is crucial your data is kept secure.  Nourish is at the forefront of digital security standards. We were the first supplier to join the Assured Solutions List, and one of the few to meet all 14 of the compliance standards they introduced in 2024.

We work with the Professional Records Standards Body to develop standards for social care. Additionally, we are also fully ISO 27001:2022 certified in line with Local Authority commissioning guidance and Cyber Essentials Plus certified. These certifications reflect our commitment to preserving the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your system.  

Data requires storage and Nourish backs up data continuously to a cloud-based system. We do not use onsite data stores and all our cloud-provided solutions are backed up automatically and built into our disaster recovery plan and testing. This ensures the highest standard of security for the data of our users and the people they support. 

A new system is a whole new world, a new fantastic point of view. You can build upon the processes you have previously developed or create new ones. We have a deep library of resources available for all our users, backed up by our experienced and understanding support teams.  

There is no set way to apply digital systems to your service and community. It is a natural learning process discovering how to best utilise the tools at your disposal. At Nourish we have seen our users come up with creative and innovative applications, specific to the needs of the people who draw upon their support. In fact, some of these ideas have proven so effective we’ve asked to share them with other Nourish users!  

Everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler. An adage that proves truer with each new piece of digital technology released in social care. In the past five years we’ve seen simplicity give way to necessity, and now necessity turn into potential. Finding the right digital partner for your service can help unlock your potential for the future. The process can be intimidating at the start, but with the right people, and the right support, you’ll only have to change systems once. 

If you’d like to find out more about the benefits and process of switching to Nourish contact us. 

A digital ecosystem is a community, where everything is interconnected. 

They come in many sizes, shapes and circumstances. Each one supporting life in a unique dance of differing dimensions. As technology continues to develop in health, care and support these dimensions are becoming increasingly distant. Many technology suppliers are simply recreating the physical silos of information in cyberspace. We can’t replace filling cabinets with isolated servers and expect to move forward, we certainly can’t do it and expect to improve the quality of support people receive! At Nourish we want to build ecosystems, not just platforms. Ecosystems shaped by interconnectivity across systems, and data sharing that is both straightforward and secure. That way we can ensure that providers have access to all the information they need, care and support professionals have the tools to deliver outstanding standards and crucially, everything is centred around the person utilising the service. 

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 throughout our platforms. Thanks to this approach every year our understanding of care is deeper, our experiences wider and our expertise sharper than the one before. Because we operate as a true digital partner, we continue to grow with our users throughout their journey. 

The past few years have 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 consistently and continuously update our existing functionality, and look for spaces in the needs of our users to develop new platforms. 

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 impacts 1 million people every day. A responsibility we are both very proud of and deeply committed to. 

We know 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. 

We designed our ecosystem to start at the beginning, with the person supported. From there you can build out your functionality to fit your service, wrapping the right systems around the unique shape of your community and their needs. A successful ecosystem gives you the freedom to grow as you want, and the stability to maintain what you need. 

We can’t predict the future (yet) but with the right tools we can always prepare for it.   

Nourish Better Care is our system built for residential settings. Designed to be easy to use for carers, and straightforward to review for care managers, it comes equipped with the tools you need to capture the full picture of every life you support. 

Nourish Safety gives you a holistic, detailed tool. To manage incidents, ensure compliance, and focus on what matters most, driving lasting improvements in care quality. 

Nourish Confidence is a single place to unify audits, actions and AI‑assessed care plans to support better decision‑making across your service.

Nourish Transparency is a new way to bring clarity to your care planning and help you understand the true cost of your care. Enabling providers to take a more structured, data-informed approach to planning and resourcing care and support. 

Nourish Insights helps care providers manage, review and understand their data with our easy to read and action dashboards.

Nourish Empower offers industry leading rostering functionality. With an easy-to-use app, workforce management and accurate call monitoring giving home care providers everything you need to support your community.

Nourish Better Care at Home builds upon this base with more detailed point of care functionality. To support truly mobile first care by offering richer interactions, contextualised care plans, in app messaging and robust point of care functionality. 

Nourish eLearning is our inbuilt partnership with MyAko. A Skills for Care and CPD accredited eLearning provider, to deliver an all-in-one digital learning solution for home care agencies. 

Nourish Protect enables your team to efficiently record and access information at the point of care, whilst ensuring sensitive data remains secure and protected.  

To make it easier to find the right products for your community we created this overview of 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. Including the developments with our partners in the Nourish Partnership Programme. All feeding into a digital ecosystem that fits around your service, and elevates your community.

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 health and social care 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. 

Connections are the core of community. Whether online or out in the world, it is our ties that bind us, and our relationships that lift us up. At Nourish we know the best results come from working together. We want to build partnerships, coproduce platforms and create a digital ecosystem that informs, invigorates and elevates everyone it impacts, every day. 

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. 

Our Chief Marketing Officer Lee Gilbert recently joined David Thompson and Natasha Bone of Rehability Care for a two part episode of their podcast, Social Care Chronicles.

‘Digital Care Planning in Action: Transforming Lives with Nourish’ explores how we are working with our users to reshape the future of social care.

Part 1 of the episode covers a range of topics from reducing paperwork to empowering individuals with learning disabilities, autism, and mental health conditions. Our conversation uncovers the real-world impact of person-centred, data-driven care.

You’ll learn

Whether you’re a care provider, tech innovator, or policymaker. This episode is packed with insights on digital transformation in social care.

Don’t miss Part 2, where we dive deeper into implementation, integration, and what’s next for the future of digital care!

Part 2 premieres at 11:00 A.M. 10th September 2025.

In Part 2 we explore

Learn more about the innovations at Nourish. And how we’re building for the future of social care on our Articles page.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who knows what the next 10 years holds?  

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

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

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. 

‘Co-production’ is a long-standing practice and a newly minted hot topic in social care. It is based on our ability to involve all relevant people, or ‘stakeholders’ as they say in corporate meeting rooms, in the process of care design. It guarantees that the people who are utilising a care service are involved in the production of that care. An undertaking that lies at the heart of person-led care.  

If people with support, families and commissioners expect this of care providers, then it is only natural that those care providers should demand it from their software suppliers as well. 

At Nourish Care, co-production is central to our design process. It bridges our technical expertise with our user’s care experience to produce effective, efficient solutions. Our user’s input guides our development, with feature requests, feedback forms and beta testing being just some of the essential ways we keep our user’s experience central to our development.  

The latest Innovation to emerge from this process is our new ‘Time Off Management’ functionality for Nourish Rostering and Community. We know that managing rosters is one of the most demanding aspects of providing home care, for both coordinators and carers. We developed our Time Off Management feature to address these challenges directly based on extensive user feedback, advice and industry insights.  

Our new functionality is designed to simplify your time off processes, making it easier to manage leave, maintain coverage, and ensure a smooth operation for everyone involved.  

The features of our new Time Off functionality are all directly tied to the feedback and input of our users. 

Holiday schemes allow for a group of settings to be built and then applied to relevant carers. This grants customisability and flexibility to coordinators while removing the need to configure each carers holiday settings individually. You can group holiday accrual, reference periods, pay methods and more to make the complexities of specificity a simple activity. 

We found the denominator of our feature requests for time off functionality was customisability. It is the most effective way to support the varied and at times unpredictable home care provider’s scheduling needs. 

Features like year start dates for holiday accrual, carry over time settings for different time off types and pay calculations all vary from service to service, and across different governments and geographies. For example, the holiday pay reference period in the UK is 52 worked weeks while in the Republic of Ireland it is a 13-week reference period. It was vital we build these features with the freedom for our users to customise the settings and wrap them around their unique service. 

We have also included a manual entitlement adjustment for coordinators for precise control when desired. A need we discovered when talking to a lot of the participants in our beta testing phase. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be Nourish without analytics and reporting functionality as well. We have a fantastic analysis page to help administrators keep track of their carers time off. It includes a calendar view of all booked, requested and refused time off, a chart of absence types e.g. holiday, sick, bereavement, a table view of the adjustments made to their carer’s entitlement, a table view of requests, their status and the option to filter or edit them as desired. 

We built several key new time off functions into our carer app as well. This gives more insight and control to carers. With our new Time Off Management functionality carers can request leave directly from the rostering app, simplifying the process of requesting time off for a variety of reasons including holidays, sickness and bereavement.

Carers can use the app to review their remaining time off allowance and keep track of requests. We centralised all this information to further our app as the leading carer support platform in home care. Information is power for a carer on the go and with this new functionality we continue to develop our ‘all-in-one pocket’ solution. It provides an overview of their currently accrued time off and helps to make the process of defining availability and accrual more straightforward for everyone involved. 

Carers can use the app to review their remaining time off allowance and keep track of requests. We centralised all this information to further our app as the leading carer support platform in home care. Information is power for a carer on the go and with this new functionality we continue to develop our ‘all-in-one pocket’ solution. It provides an overview of their currently accrued time off and helps to make the process of defining availability and accrual more straightforward for everyone involved. 

For non Nourish users who want to learn more about our approach to co-production and working with us to support their home care service, book a demo. 

We have spent years working on our rostering system to make this as quick and straightforward as possible. Something we could only achieve thanks to co-production with our users through our beta testing processes. We spoke to Samantha Rabvu, Care Manager for TLB 24/7 Healthcare, about her experience participating in our Time Off Management beta. 

“We were paper based for annual leave requests,” explained Samantha. “Which meant someone had to fill in a form and scan it or take a picture of it. Then we were constantly just printing so I could give it to the person who’s approving annual leave. So when the offer to take part in a beta test for time off came along I just thought. ‘I don’t know what it is going to look like, but it sounds like something we could really use.’

“It offered the chance to cut out the middle man, the printing, and give power to both our carers and our coordinators. It was the chance to move to real time updates, rather than requests from a variety of platforms. In December last year we had a whole lot of annual leave requests. Honestly, we lost track of them due to the volume and variety of requests. Which was a major concern for us. So, when I saw that you were building something that could show us how many people are asking for time off and those who are already taking time off before approving any more, it was a game changer for me.” 

“I felt very involved,” said Samantha. “I could see the team was really drawing out our feedback with the questions they asked. ‘How is it going?’ ‘How are you guys using it?’ ‘Are there any adjustments we should make?’ I felt like a real partner that the things were saying were being considered. When we saw one of our suggestions in the next update it was amazing. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one suggesting it, but it was awesome.  

“We were involved throughout the process, even my team here was quite involved. Any issue that they had, they knew they could bring it to me, and I would pass it on. That way we always got things resolved.” 

“They were on it,” said Samantha, “They were on the money. It was so easy. If there was an issue, I’d send a screenshot and they were on it, we looked at it in depth, it was awesome. I had a main contact point but worked with several different members of your team. I just knew that they were there. They had our back, no matter what.  

“They are awesome, friendly, approachable, and we could rely on them 100%. Even the way bad news came was awesome. When something wasn’t ready, we always knew that it was still in development, it’s just not ready yet. We understood because of the communication, and we trusted your team.” 

“We’re on the right track,” said Samantha. “This was a great starting point for me. It was fantastic. Even though I was a little unsure at the start, digital wise, this isn’t something i had a lot of experience with. The process helped us to develop skills and tactics on how to navigate the rest of the digitalization roadmap, which is great.  

“So, I’m hopeful. I’m looking forward to it, it’s exciting, because I feel involved in the process. I feel like we are growing with you, and we can build something great together.” 

The future of social care will be shaped by co-production throughout the entirely of our sector. Lived experience, collaboration, data sharing, all fold together under the guiding philosophy of teamwork and community. We received over 150 feature requests for more advanced time off functionality. Which was the starting point of our development cycle, and a continuing example of our approach to digital social care solutions. 

We still have a long way to go, and we are very excited about the journey. Why don’t you join us? 

Home care software is baked into the future of social care. We witnessed a huge increase in the uptake of digital systems across social care over the past 3 years. A change accelerated by government policy and funding. This considerable uptake brought with it a range of advantages and benefits for care providers. For example, digital rostering systems like Nourish help providers to simplify processes, reduce administration times and record more detailed information. With digital systems becoming commonplace in social care there has never been a more urgent time to switch to Nourish. Admissions for the funding available through Integrated Care Systems will close at the end of November. Even for those providers who are still getting up and running choosing the right digital rostering system is crucial for many reasons. 

Nourish gives you the tools to take full control over your home care administration. This means more than rosters designed for simple and swift use. It means a robust system compiling the wealth of data your teams naturally gather to provide you with a clear overview of what is happening in your community.  

With Nourish you can schedule your carers and clients up to four weeks in advance. Repeating these schedules with ease to improve consistency across your service. Of course, as all home care administrators understand, nothing ever goes totally to schedule. Nourish home care rostering is designed with drag and drop functionality that makes changing your schedule on short notice easier than ever. Our home care software includes a ‘recommend a carer’ feature that is scored based on a range of data points you choose and weight. Such as: familiarity with client, travel to appointment and relevant skills for the appointment’s tasks. So, you can adjust quickly, decisively and with confidence. 

Digital rostering offers benefits beyond simplifying existing paper processes. Nourish Rostering and Community unlock a range of features that put new innovations and fresh information at your fingertips. Call monitoring is a straightforward way to record actual appointment times. Nourish includes geographic location and a range of electronic call monitoring options to suit your needs. Care providers, especially those with local authority and council contracts can attest to the benefits of a robust call monitoring system. 

Crucially, with a quality home care software like Nourish, you can access data at a level previously unattainable with paper. This data is easily presentable and evidencable in trends and reports. You can track different factors regarding your team and community to give you a more detailed overview of your service. These details, like travel times and medical administration, can be fed back into your service to drive positive outcomes. As well as acting as informative evidence for your regulator. 

Nourish home care software supports care providers across your service. Home care requires a great deal of administration and organising. Beyond the design of schedules and care packages there is the crucial matter of making sure everything is in order, and everyone is properly paid. This can be quite daunting for people when they are just setting out their new home care service. Especially those less familiar with operating a business.  

Our invoicing and timesheets are a simple way for you to organise your payroll. You can use Nourish to set specific pay rates and charge rates, to match with the responsibilities of your teams and the services they provide. Our home care software includes comprehensive time-off functionality. Allowing you to set the rate at which holiday is earned, and for your team to manage and request leave through the Nourish home care app. 

Big changes are rarely simple. But with the future of social care coming at us at its current speed, now is the simplest time to do it. The best home care software comes backed up with a human team. People who will work with you to make sure you get everything you need from your system. At Nourish we pride ourselves on being person-led and community-centred. We are incredibly excited about the future of social care, and we’d love to share it with you. 

If you want to find out more about working with Nourish book a demo!