EXCLUSIVE: TECquity – Inclusion in technology-enabled care

Dr. Matthew Ford, Research Analyst at the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), considers whether technology-enabled care is being developed in a way that works for everyone and how we can shift to ensure inclusion. 

Technology-enabled care (TEC) is ever evolving. New innovations are emerging all the time, exploring how to help people stay independent, connected, and supported. But there’s a big question we need to ask – is TEC being developed in a way that works for everyone?

Having attended the International Technology Enabled Care Conference (iTEC) for the past few years, I can see how far we’ve come. It used to be that the loudest voices drove the conversation – mostly policymakers, commissioners, and technology providers. But we’re starting to shift towards something more inclusive. Real co-production. Real partnerships.

That said, we still have work to do. If TEC is to support social care equity, we need to go beyond engaging the people who are already well represented and make sure it reflects the full diversity of those who could benefit from it. SCIE has been leading important work in this space, highlighting inequities in social care, and our ongoing development of an ‘evidence hub’ is helping to pull together best practice and research from across the sector – something we need to be using as we design and deliver TEC.

Co-production that works – not just in name

Co-production – designing tech solutions in equal partnership with people to best meet their needs – has been a big theme at iTEC for a while now, and this year was no exception. There were brilliant examples of services working with people rather than just designing for them. But as Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Melanie Williams (President of ADASS) pointed out, it needs to go further.

SCIE’s survey into experiences and understandings of co-production highlighted a challenge many are already aware of – co-production can often feel like a box-ticking exercise. The same people are involved time and time again, while others, particularly those from seldom heard and underserved communities, aren’t meaningfully engaged. If we don’t address this, we won’t get the full picture of what everyone needs from TEC.

Learning from good practice – but going further

There’s a lot to celebrate. Local authorities and care providers are embedding co-production into their digital strategies. We heard about TEC solutions designed in partnership with people who draw on social care, making sure they work in real life, not just on paper.

Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care, spoke about how national policy is shifting towards proactive, preventative TEC. It’s a big opportunity to change how we work and deliver care. But we have to make sure this shift includes everyone – not just those who are already engaged in the system.

To do that, we need to:

• Expand who we involve in co-production. We need to hear from people with different experiences – across different communities, care settings, and levels of digital access.
• Go beyond consultation. People with lived experience should have real decision-making power, not just be asked for feedback after key decisions have been made.
• Use evidence to shape TEC development. Resources like SCIE’s evidence hub on social care equity can help us draw on existing research and best practice, making sure solutions are informed by data and lived experiences, not just assumptions.
• Make TEC accessible to more people. That means thinking about barriers like digital exclusion, literacy, accessibility issues, and cultural differences, and designing solutions with them in mind.

Making TEC work for everyone

Stephen Kinnock put it well when he said we’ve added years to life; now it’s time to utilise TEC and add life to those years.

TEC has huge potential to help people live better, not just longer. But that will only happen if we get issues related to equity right. If we don’t, TEC could become another source of inequality and inequity, something that works well for some but fails to reach others.

The challenge now is to push further. Keep up the momentum on co-production, but make sure it’s genuinely inclusive. Reach out to those who are seldom heard and underserved. And make sure that TEC is built for everyone, not just the easiest-to-reach groups. Finally, we need to be using the best available evidence to shape TEC that is not only innovative but also fair and accessible.

Because if we get this right, we won’t just improve TEC – we’ll transform lives.