The ATech Policy Lab is hosting a roundtable to build an evidence based approach to driving adoption of CareTech at scale.

In February 2023 the APPG for Assistive Technology hosted a meeting with local authorities, tech providers, care organisations and government officials on local AT service commissioning.  

One of the meeting’s findings was that local councils and technology providers are often eager to provide services that meet the needs of all residents but frequently lack the sustained funding, expertise and guidance necessary to do so. Another key finding was that the Department for Health and Social Care is committed to supporting local areas to harness CareTech to help people live healthy and independent lives and wants to make sure that robust evidence –  about what technologies work best for whom – drives investment in services.  

This workshop aims to build on these two findings by examining how policymakers can build an evidence based approach to driving the adoption of CareTech at scale. It will identify the wider factors that can enable or undermine the delivery of CareTech services, ranging from the availability of funding and the quality of local tech infrastructure and service to the government supportiveness of senior council decision makers. We will do this by drawing on current practices and expertise from service users, service providers, commissioners and academic researchers.  

Policy Connect will use the insights from the workshop to develop recommendations on how policymakers, tech companies and care organisations can generate, share and apply evidence about the efficacy of technology products and services to help people live healthy, independent and fulfilling lives.  

To fin out more about this work, please contact clive.gilbert [at] policyconnect.org.uk (Clive[dot]Gilbert[at]policyconnect[dot]org[dot]uk)