How digital innovation is being used in social care to enhance wellbeing

Insight 

Like many Integrated Care Systems (ICS) Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICS is experiencing growing pressure on health and social care services. Some of this pressure stems from an ageing population and rising prevalence of dementia. There are more than 6600 residents diagnosed with dementia, a higher-than-average rate (1), across the BLMK system.

Many people receiving care in adult social care settings live with cognitive impairment, communication difficulties, chronic pain, loneliness, anxiety or behaviours that challenge (2). Alone, or in combination, these factors can increase the risk of distress, falls and being admitted to hospital (3).

Pain is often under-recognised in people who cannot reliably verbalise it, which in turn can lead to untreated symptoms that can escalate into behavioral issues and increased care complexity (4). At the same time, social isolation and low mood are common in care settings, contributing to reduced quality of life (5).

Reducing avoidable hospital admissions and improving person-centered care were key priorities for the BLMK adult social care system and the ICS (6). There was a clear need for scalable, innovative approaches that could support staff, improve early identification of need and enhance wellbeing for people receiving care.

Intervention 

Funded by the Adult Social Care Technology Fund and in partnership with Health Innovation East and the University of Hertfordshire, the BLMK ICS Digitising Social Care (DiSC) programme delivered and evaluated the “Enhancing Wellbeing Through Digital Programme”.

The programme introduced two technologies across care homes, supported living and domiciliary care settings, these were:

PainChek™ – an AI-enabled pain assessment tool using facial recognition and behavioural indicators to support identification of pain in people unable to reliably self-report.

RoboPets – interactive companion animals designed to reduce loneliness, anxiety and distress, and improve engagement and communication.

Health Innovation East’s contributions were central to developing the bid, securing funding, setting up programme delivery and providing programme management support. The University Of Hertfordshire evaluated the implementation.

The programme deployed:

• 994 PainChek™ licenses across 19 providers.

1,317 RoboPets across 136 providers.

• 994 PainChek™ licenses across 19 providers. 

• 1,317 RoboPets across 136 providers. 

Impact 

The initiative reached:

• 1317 residents received a RoboPets to support wellbeing, reduce loneliness and improve resident interactions.
• Approximately 994 residents were supported through PainChek™, enabling pain assessment in people unable to self-report.

It was delivered across 155 care providers and multiple care settings, including care homes, domiciliary care and supported living.

Experience in practice: insights from care staff and managers: 

“PainChek™ supports our decision-making, so we’re not having to guess whether they’re in pain or not. We have seen a decrease in challenging behaviours and incidents which would take up a lot of our time and take us away from providing care.” 

Rebecca Ward, Registered Manager, Danecroft Care Home. 

“It’s great seeing how technology can impact the lives of our residents and this is quite a really nice, quite simple way that we can make their lives a bit better. It feels good to see them so happy.” 

Tom Bridle, Care and Support Manager at Camphill Milton Keynes Communities. 

The University of Hertfordshire completed a full, independent evaluation to understand the implementation, outcomes and cost-effectiveness of PainChek™ and RoboPets. This evaluation is currently in progress and findings are not yet available to share. A second part of this impact story will be shared once the evaluation is complete and results can be reported. Findings from this evaluation will be used to:

• Inform future local system implementation, including more targeted and sustainable rollout across BLMK.
• Shape best practice for embedding digital technologies in adult social care pathways.
• Contribute to national learning and policy development through the Adult Social Care Technology Fund (ASCTF).
• Support decisions on scale, funding models and long-term adoption.