Digital care technologies have enormous potential to support people’s independence, improve quality and safety, and help our workforce deliver care more efficiently
Sensor-based technologies that detect and prevent falls or smart medication reminder systems that prompt people to take their medicines safely and on time, already help people stay independent at home for longer. These are practical, real world examples of how technology can support people, families and the practitioners who work alongside them.
But despite this promising innovation, I also know the adult social care sector continues to face real barriers when it comes to adopting these technologies confidently and consistently. One of the biggest challenges is the absence of clear, consistent and accessible evidence about what technologies deliver true benefits to people.
Government funded independent evaluations through the Adult Social Care Technology Fund have strengthened our understanding of the implementation and impact of care technologies. However, challenges still remain: outcomes are measured inconsistently, much of the existing evidence comes from suppliers rather than independent evaluators, and there is no shared approach for assessing quality, impact or value.
To address this, we have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to develop a new Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Care Technologies (ESF for DCT). This framework will provide practical, co-designed standards that bring greater consistency and confidence to how evidence for care technologies is generated, assessed and used.
Listening to the sector
Colleagues across the adult social care sector told us clearly that, without a consistent way to assess technology, decisions are often shaped by informal sources - peer recommendations, supplier demonstrations or local word of mouth. People expressed strong support for a trusted, sector specific framework to guide both how evidence is produced and how it is interpreted.
Partnering with NICE
This work builds on the strong foundations of the NICE Evidence Standards Framework for digital health technologies, adapting it for use in adult social care. NICE’s expertise in developing evidence standards, combined with insight from people who use, deliver and commission technology in adult social care, presents an opportunity to produce a framework that is both rigorous and practically meaningful. Co-design will be at the heart of this work. An expert advisory panel, including people with lived experience, technology suppliers, care providers, academics and local authorities, will help ensure the framework reflects the realities of practice.
What the framework will do
The ESF for DCT will bring clarity, consistency and transparency to evidence generation and decision making across the sector. It will:
- Support evidence generators, guiding technology developers, researchers, care providers and local authorities on what types of evidence to produce, how to demonstrate value consistently, and how to develop comparable evaluation outputs.
- Support evidence users such as commissioners and care providers understand what good evidence looks like, compare it consistently, and make confident, evidence based investment decisions.
What happens next
The framework will be co-designed with the adult social care sector, including people who draw on care and those with lived experience. The expert advisory panel will guide the process and ensure alignment with sector priorities.
The Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Care Technologies is expected to be published in Spring 2027.
If you would like more information about the work you can find this on the NICE website.
If you would like to be involved in co-design activities, please contact ESFadultsocialcare@nice.org.uk
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