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Reflecting on NCASC 2025: the need for co-produced digital innovation

At the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) 2025 last week, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) highlighted the critical role co-produced digital innovation must play in the future of social care reform.

NCASC 2025 showed just how much determination there is across the sector to rethink what care and support can look like. What stood out this year was the generosity and honesty of the conversations; sector leaders, practitioners, partners and people with lived experience are keen to work together in new ways, to share what they have learned and to shape approaches that work for real people in real communities. That spirit of collaboration gives me enormous confidence in what we can achieve together.

I was pleased to hear the Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock, confirm the Government’s commitment to a future National Care Service underpinned with national standards of care.  To support this ambition, SCIE and The Access Group recently convened a series of policy roundtables to develop a framework for developing the standards. This work has highlighted that co-production with people who draw on care and support must be a core principle. Insights from the roundtables will be published in a report in January 2026 and shared with the Casey Commission to inform Phase One of its work.

Kathryn Marsden OBE

Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

Across the conference, SCIE:

  • Launched our brand-new report, ‘Shaping change together: co-producing innovation in social care’—setting out a renewed vision for innovation built with the insight, experience and leadership of the people who live and work within the system every day.
  • Launched a strategic partnership with leader in lifestyle monitoring technology, Lilli, to work with local authorities and Integrated Care Boards, helping them to plan, implement and embed digital tools with confidence.
  • Hosted a series of events that explored how digital innovation, co-production and strengths-based practice can support better outcomes across children’s and adults’ services.
    • Our reception and panel discussion with Lilli explored how technology, particularly remote monitoring, can support people to live good lives by personalised, tailored support that promotes independence, dignity and safety and prevents escalation. Drawing on examples from Bromley and Medway Councils, the session highlighted how this can, in turn, help councils achieve meaningful cost savings. For example, SCIE’s work with Bromley Council targets £2 million savings, with the use of Assistive Technology already reducing care costs by nearly 30%.
    • Our workshop, ‘Getting the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty right for children and young people’, drew on attendees’ real experiences and the latest evidence to explore the rise in the number of children subject to deprivation of liberty orders. It revealed the need for sector-wide involvement and the end of siloed working—as well as the importance of keeping children and young people at the heart of decisions, empowering them to participate in solutions and ensuring that approaches are personalised.

Across the three days, our conversations with attendees reflected a shared sense of urgency. They spoke openly about the pressures facing services—workforce challenges, rising demand and constrained budgets, for example—but what was clear was the resilience and commitment to improving people’s lives.

Kathryn Marsden OBE

Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

About SCIE

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) improves the lives of people of all ages by co-producing, sharing, and supporting the use of the best available knowledge and evidence about what works in practice. We are a leading independent social care charity working with organisations that support adults, families and children across the UK.

If you have any questions regarding this submission, please do not hesitate to contact Molly Pennington, Press and Media Relations Officer, at molly.pennington@scie.org.uk

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