Here are the top themes from the week that stood out to me and what they mean in practical terms for public service leaders and delivery teams.

1. AI for public good

AI was inevitably a key theme at the event, but one of the strongest messages was that we need to move from theory to real, well-understood use cases across all sectors.

Why this matters now

The UK government has launched a £187 million ‘TechFirst’ programme intending to upskill citizens with AI and digital skills. This will ensure that the UK becomes an ‘AI maker and not an AI taker’. As AI becomes part of everyday life, public services must also keep pace. Not just by using AI, but by integrating it in ways that improve efficiency and outcomes.

What public sector teams can do

• Look for simple, high-friction processes that AI can improve (such as triaging requests, summarising documents).
• Design tools that meet real user needs, not just what’s technically possible.
• Ensure AI tools are interoperable, so they connect smoothly across public facing portals and systems.

2. AI in education: Supporting teachers, not replacing them

One session looked at how AI could help to relieve some of the pressures in education, like time spent marking, real-time student support and spotting student weaknesses early. An important question that came up during the Q&A was: how do we make sure safety measures are in place, while also encouraging creativity and making sure tools are inclusive and accessible?

Why this matters now

Teachers are stretched, and feedback loops are slow. There’s a lot of manual work in education. AI tools could free up valuable time and improve support for students. It could also allow space for more strategic work in this sector.

What education teams can do

• Choose AI tools and applications that genuinely add value for students, educators, and administrators
• Have clear policies in place around data privacy, bias and accessibility from the start.
• Involve teachers and students in small pilots early on
• Measure what matters, like time saved or improved outcomes. True impact will be measured by the benefits delivered from real use cases.

3. Health and AI: A joined-up approach is critical

Healthcare innovation was another major theme, with a focus on using technology to improve patient outcomes, speed up diagnosis and treatment and reduce costs. From predictive analytics to wearables and brain-computer interfaces, the goal is faster, more accurate care and better use of resources.

Interesting use cases included:

• DeepTech technology that could use Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) to restore motor functions and repair cognitive ability
• Generative AI in drug discovery to unlock hidden insights
• Use of LLMs in genomics to identify emerging disease patterns
• Wearable devices that enable remote monitoring
• Use of predictive analysis for early detection of health conditions

Why this matters now

We absolutely can’t afford to develop tech in silos in healthcare. The biggest gains come when government, health providers, startups and regulators all work together to support adoption at scale.

What health teams can do

• AI must be trained on inclusive, representative data to mitigate the bias that disproportionately affects more vulnerable patients.
• Build strategic partnerships early between tech, research and care providers. Openly discussing hurdles to the unified scalability and adoption of AI in real-world healthcare settings is crucial to unlock innovation across the wider healthcare industry. 
• Apply due diligence in clinical research and diagnosis. Patient safety should never be compromised in the rush to deploy.

4. Is quantum computing the future?

Quantum computing came up in relation to everything from cybersecurity to climate modelling. The potential is huge, but it faces significant hurdles such as high development costs, scalability challenges and the constant need for capital.

Why this matters now

With continued government investment, the UK is positioning itself as a leader. Public sector teams don’t need to build quantum capability now, but they do need to know what’s coming.

What public sector teams should consider

• Keep an eye on use cases that might affect your sector (things like cryptography and logistics).
• Build future-readiness into your data and infrastructure plans.
• Engage with experts and partners now to stay informed.

Tech for good

One of the key themes from the week was ‘tech for good’ – something we care deeply about at Made Tech. But tech for good isn’t about chasing tech trends. It’s about choosing the right tools, for the right problems, at the right time.

At Made Tech, we believe every tech solution, whether it’s quantum computing for smart cities or AI in healthcare must start with people. A human-centred approach gives us solutions that are not only useful, but also support broader goals like sustainability and ethics. This is how we build public services that are fair, effective and ready for the future.

Get in touch with us to find out how emerging tech could improve your services.

The post Why tech trends matter for the public sector appeared first on Made Tech.

Late to the game, but ready to leap

The ‘competitiveness of backwardness’ theory (Gerschenkron 1962) suggests that late adopters of technology can skip earlier challenges and jump straight to modern, efficient solutions. This concept can apply beyond economics. It’s a way to tackle societal issues. 

In this blog, I’ll look at how the UK’s social care system, often seen as the underfunded cousin of healthcare, could use its slower adoption of technology as a springboard to leap into the digital age.

The growing technology gap between healthcare and social care

Health and social care in the UK are closely connected, but they often work separately. While the NHS provides medical care, social care helps with daily activities like mobility and personal care. However, social care gets less funding and attention, especially when it comes to technology. Healthcare has advanced with digital solutions like patient records and telemedicine, but social care is still struggling with outdated systems, limited resources and a growing digital gap.

Social care in the UK may be behind on digital investment – but that also means it has the advantage of being less tied down by legacy systems and expensive infrastructure. Like other sectors and countries that have skipped steps and embraced modern tools directly, social care has the chance to leapfrog traditional digital transformation models. The following examples show how starting late can actually be an advantage, if we take the right approach.

Leapfrogging technology: India’s mobile revolution

India skipped the costly rollout of landline infrastructure and went straight to mobile phones. By 2023, over 85% of adults had mobile phones and 80% of households had internet access.
Key advantages:

• cost-effective infrastructure: Mobile networks were cheaper and quicker to deploy, especially in rural areas.
• rapid innovation: The country swiftly adopted 3G, 4G and 5G technologies.
• social impact: Mobile access enabled services like telemedicine and mobile banking, boosting financial inclusion and healthcare access.

Another example: Kenya’s mobile banking boom

In Kenya, limited access to traditional banks didn’t hinder financial progress. Instead, the country leapfrogged brick-and-mortar banking altogether with the rise of M-Pesa, a mobile money platform launched in 2007.
Why it worked:

• minimal legacy infrastructure: With fewer established banks and systems, there was less resistance to new models.
• mobile-first culture: Most Kenyans already used mobile phones, making it easy to adopt text-based banking services.
• wider impact: M-Pesa allowed millions to save, borrow, and transact securely, especially in remote areas , without needing a formal bank account.

5 ways social care can get ahead

Here are 5 ways social care could lead, not lag, in digital transformation.

1. Mobile-first access for social care workers

Care workers are often on the move. Visiting homes, coordinating with families, or updating care notes between appointments. Unlike clinical staff, they typically don’t work from desktops or rely on static systems.
By designing mobile-first apps that prioritise offline functionality, quick data input (such as voice notes or dropdowns), and integration with calendars or maps, we can streamline essential tasks like:

• Logging visits and observations in real time
• Accessing care plans on the go
• Communicating securely with colleagues and managers

2. Affordable wearable technology

A £20 smartwatch may sound basic, but today’s budget wearables can track steps, heart rate, sleep patterns, and even GPS location. This opens up opportunities for real-time monitoring of vulnerable individuals without clinical-grade equipment or over-regulation.
For example:

• Step count and movement alerts can help spot changes in mobility
• Heart rate anomalies could trigger early interventions
• Location tracking may support those at risk of wandering
  Used in combination with lightweight dashboards, carers could be alerted to concerning patterns, and families kept informed without needing costly remote monitoring setups.

3. Leapfrogging to AI-powered solutions

Rather than replicating complex hospital data infrastructure, social care can jump directly to AI-powered platforms that analyse unstructured data from notes, voice entries, or messaging apps.
Large Language Models (LLMs) can be adapted for social care.
This could mean:

• Summarising daily care notes into key concerns
• Spotting early signs of decline from fragmented records
• Recommending interventions based on similar historic cases

All without needing an in-house data science team and with options to deploy securely using privacy-first models on cloud infrastructure.

4. Harnessing the power of unpaid caregivers

Around 5.7 million unpaid carers in the UK support relatives and friends, yet most operate without access to basic care management tools.
Simple digital tools such as shared calendars, symptom trackers, or even WhatsApp-style group updates could:

• Help unpaid carers coordinate care with professionals
• Enable them to record and share key insights
• Provide automated guidance or reassurance (e.g. AI chat for common questions)

5. Distributed care records

Unlike NHS care, where centralised Electronic Health Records dominate, social care can explore modular, distributed systems. Cloud platforms like Google Cloud, Azure, or AWS HealthLake offer flexible, scalable options that:

• Avoid the need for large, upfront system procurement
• Let councils or providers add features incrementally
• Support secure access for multi-agency teams, families, and care workers
  This approach also aligns with open standards and data portability, making it easier to connect with NHS systems in future.

A path forward for social care

Social care’s current challenges offer an opportunity for rapid progress. By adopting innovative, affordable and scalable technologies, it can skip outdated systems and embrace a digitally advanced future. Doing this will take bold thinking and cross-sector collaboration.
If you’re exploring where to start, take a look at some of the projects we’ve delivered or learn more about how we support health and care teams.

The post Leapfrogging tech in social care appeared first on Made Tech.

But some of the most valuable work you can do for a client happens when you look beyond the task at hand and help them move closer to their long-term goals.

That’s what happened when we supported a major data migration for the NHS. The initial ask was simple: move teams from one data platform to another. But by stepping back and asking the right questions, we helped turn a technical migration into something much more valuable: a shift toward a more joined-up, confident and strategic approach to data.

And this kind of shift isn’t unique to healthcare. It’s something we see across sectors. When delivery teams engage with strategy, even small projects can have a lasting impact.

From system migration to mindset shift

The NHS needed to move several analytical teams from the National Commissioning Data Repository (NCDR) to a new platform called the Unified Data Access Layer (UDAL). The platform holds data used to track waiting times, monitor maternity care and plan where new services are needed, amongst many other use cases. It’s vital that this data is accurate, up to date and easy to share across teams.

The technical goal was to migrate users and decommission the old platform. But the real opportunity was to improve how the NHS managed, trusted and made use of its data – not just move it from A to B.

As we got into the work, we saw ways to make things better. The process was manual, so there was a clear opportunity to bring in automation and reduce errors. Some teams didn’t fully trust the new platform’s maturity, so we needed to focus on building their confidence and understanding. We also found that if something went wrong with the data pipelines, no one was immediately alerted. This left teams unaware they were not using the most recent data before accessing it.

So we asked a bigger question: how could this system migration help build a stronger, more strategic NHS data platform?

3 things we did differently

1. We asked strategic questions early

Instead of just working through a task list, we opened up conversations with technical and non-technical teams. We wanted to understand what success looked like. Not just for this migration, but for the organisation’s wider data ambitions.

This helped us reframe the project. Rather than just completing a handover, we started helping the NHS explore how this platform could support shared metrics and future platforms like the Federated Data Platform (FDP).

2. We co-designed realistic solutions

We brought in experienced data consultants straightaway. People who had delivered government-scale platforms before. Their insight helped us quickly spot the real trade-offs, avoid unnecessary complexity and focus on what would actually work.

One of the biggest improvements was helping the NHS choose a single, consistent approach to future migrations. UDAL offered two options: a familiar but inefficient datamart route and a newer, faster Lake Mart route using Databricks. The Lake Mart option was more scalable and cost-effective, but less familiar. We worked with the client to show how a bit of upfront training could give them long-term benefits. After our contract ended they adopted this approach as their standard.

3. We built trust in the system

A big blocker was trust. Many teams were understandably nervous about switching to a new platform without knowing it was reliable. One issue was that there were no alerts when something went wrong with the data. We helped fix this by training NHS engineers and improving how the system flagged errors, so if something broke, teams would know straight away and could fix it quickly.

We also looked for quick, practical improvements so teams could see immediate improvements to their old ways of working. For example, replacing manual Excel forms with a digital request tool to speed up the process and reduce mistakes.

The kind of value every project should aim for

By going beyond the original brief, we helped the NHS set stronger foundations for its data strategy. But the value we delivered, strategic alignment and practical improvement isn’t unique to healthcare. It’s what happens when delivery teams lean into strategy.

Here’s what that can look like across any organisation:

Don’t just deliver – help define success

Every project is a chance to go beyond delivery and shape something better. That doesn’t mean scope creep or going off-brief. It means being curious, asking better questions and spotting where your expertise can add real, lasting value.

So next time you’re working on a system migration, platform build, or system change, take a moment to zoom out. Because sometimes, the biggest opportunities are the ones hidden just behind the task list.

For a deeper look at some of the work we’ve been doing with the NHS browse our Health and Care case studies.

The post Helping clients see the bigger picture appeared first on Made Tech.

A critical but often behind-the-scenes process that keeps digital health solutions safe, reliable and effective. In this blog post, I’ll share my thoughts on the vital role of clinical assurance, its impact on health and care and why I believe it should be a priority for anyone involved in developing or using health tech.

What is clinical assurance?

Clinical assurance is about making absolutely sure that teams build and deploy digital health and care systems and applications that are safe and effective for their intended use. As Baroness Gillian Merron, Minister for Patient Safety, recently stated:

It is important that there are robust safety standards in digital health to keep apace with new technologies as they evolve.”

You can read more about the Department of Health and Social Care’s review of clinical risk standards here.

It’s not just about whether the technology works (that’s technical assurance). It’s also about the potential impact on actual patient care. This includes adhering to mandated standards and guidelines, such as DCB0129 and DCB0160, which set out the approach, framework and guidance for those working in a digital health and care capacity. Essentially, clinical assurance is about minimising the risk of hazards or unintended consequences that could lead to increased harm to patients through the use of the digital solution.

Why clinical assurance matters

Patient safety first: To me, clinical assurance is fundamentally about protecting patients. A seemingly small error in a health tech system could have serious implications, from medication mistakes to incorrect diagnoses and so on.

Reducing risk: Clinical assurance helps reduce risks for healthcare providers and organisations. By carefully evaluating and testing systems, potential hazards and issues can be identified and mitigated before they impact patient care.

Compliance and standards: Adhering to NHS guidelines and industry standards is crucial in the health and care sector. Clinical assurance ensures that digital teams build solutions that meet these requirements.

Building trust: A strong focus on clinical assurance provides trust among health and care providers, patients and other stakeholders. It demonstrates a commitment to safety and quality.

The challenges of clinical assurance

Making sure digital health tools are safe and effective isn’t always easy. That’s why we’re partnering with Digisafe to raise the bar for clinical safety. Together, we’re committed to meeting the high standards the NHS demands from its suppliers and healthcare organisations. Because patients, professionals, and the public deserve more than “safe enough.” They deserve digital health tools that are trusted, tested and built with clinical safety at the core – not as a tick-box.

That’s the standard we’re setting – and the culture we’re building.

Solving complex challenges together

Here are some of the main challenges we’re tackling and where our joint expertise can really make a difference:

1. Specialised knowledge and skills
   Clinical assurance needs experts who understand both technology and healthcare. This means knowing software development and system integration, as well as clinical workflows, medical terms, and regulations. Finding and keeping people with this mix of skills can be tough.
2. Continuous learning
   Healthcare rules, standards and technology change all the time. Teams need to keep learning to make sure they’re following the latest guidelines and using the best methods. This includes understanding changes to standards like DCB0129 and DCB0160 and keeping up with best practices in digital health.
3. Handling complexity
   Healthcare systems are complicated, with many moving parts and stakeholders. Getting everything to work together smoothly, and making sure patient data is protected at every step, requires careful planning and good communication. Teams need to understand how systems interact and identify risks at every stage.
4. Balancing speed and accuracy
   In tech projects, there’s often pressure to work quickly. But with health tech, you can’t cut corners on safety. Finding the right balance between speed and thoroughness is crucial. The challenge is to maintain rigorous checks without slowing things down too much.
5. Overcoming resistance to change
   Introducing clinical assurance may mean changing existing workflows, which some people may resist. Encouraging a culture of safety and quality is key to making sure everyone is on board.

As Rebecca Wilson from Digisafe puts it, embedding clinical safety in digital health isn’t just about compliance – it’s about doing things right, together.

By working with Made Tech, we’re not just combining expertise, we’re bringing our teams together to raise awareness, embed the right culture, and put clinical safety at the heart of digital transformation. It’s about more than standards and systems. It’s about people – creating the right processes with and for them.”

For Rebecca, ensuring safety means enabling frontline staff and citizens to use digital tools confidently and effectively. That’s why this partnership focuses on supporting organisations to navigate complexity and meet NHS expectations – not as a checkbox exercise, but as a genuine commitment to safe, impactful delivery.

“Safety isn’t a barrier to innovation. It’s the foundation for trust, impact and better outcomes for everyone.”

Clinical assurance in action

Here are a couple of examples of how we’ve used clinical assurance in our work:

Moving patient records online

Imagine 50 million paper health records stored in warehouses, inaccessible to doctors when needed most. That was the reality of the Lloyd George records – paper-based patient records didn’t link to modern electronic systems. Our team built a digital platform to store and manage these records securely, making them readily accessible to clinicians.

Clinical assurance was at the heart of this project. We had to make sure that we digitised records accurately and preserved patient data integrity. Also that the transition to digital records didn’t introduce risks. Without rigorous clinical assurance, errors in data transfer could have led to misdiagnoses or delayed treatment.

Connecting healthcare systems with direct care APIs

Today’s healthcare system relies on a web of digital services, from GP records to hospital databases. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) enable these systems to communicate and share data efficiently. However, any mistake in how data is transferred  (such as missing allergy information) could have life-threatening consequences.

One of our key projects made sure that APIs connecting GP systems with third-party software providers were clinically safe. By applying rigorous clinical assurance checks, we ensured that these APIs worked reliably and securely, supporting safe and efficient patient care.

Why everyone should care about clinical assurance

Clinical assurance isn’t just for developers or regulators. It’s essential for everyone involved in digital health and care. From the people building the tools to those using them and the patients they serve, clinical assurance ensures safety and reliability at every step.

• Software developers need to embed safety into digital health design as part of their development lifecycle from the start.
• Healthcare providers should encourage staff awareness on the assurance process, standards and complete their own DCB0160, as they depend on these tools to deliver safe, effective care.
• Patients rely on accurate, trustworthy solutions for their health and wellbeing.

Rebecca emphasises the importance of shared ownership when it comes to clinical assurance in digital health:

Clinical assurance isn’t just one person’s job, it’s a shared responsibility. Whether you’re building the tech, delivering care, or part of a digital team, clinical safety activities have to be built in from the start. That’s how we make digital health work for everyone.”

The future of clinical assurance

As digital health evolves, clinical assurance will become even more critical. The rise of AI, machine learning, and telehealth presents new opportunities but also new risks. We must make sure that every new technology that comes along is subject to the same rigorous assurance processes to maintain patient safety.

Ultimately, clinical assurance is the unsung hero of health tech. It works quietly in the background, ensuring that digital solutions deliver on their promise of safer, more efficient healthcare. While it may not always be glamorous or in the spotlight, its role is indispensable. As we continue to push the boundaries of digital health, it must remain a top priority.

If you’re involved in developing or using digital health solutions, we can help you make clinical assurance a core part of your process. Get in touch today.

The post Why clinical assurance is the unsung hero of health tech appeared first on Made Tech.

Q: How did you start working in the health sector, and what do you enjoy about it?

I started my career working in change management in governance-heavy industries like financial services and the MOD. Eventually, I fancied doing something faster-paced and less strictly regulated, so I moved to the membership and voluntary/non-profit sector. I was working on customer relationship management systems, websites, and member portals. This is where I was really first exposed to large digital projects. Now, at Made Tech, working on digital transformation in healthcare, I feel like I can make use of that different combination of experiences to deliver value in the best way possible.”

I’m really chuffed to be working in the health sector now because I’ve always had a real interest in medical sciences. Everyone on a project team is likely to be an NHS patient at some point, so we’re doing it for ourselves too. Working on something that impacts the entire population is humbling and motivates you to do a good job. In the NHS, everyone wants to do well, and their attitude rubs off on you.

I know it’s a really difficult environment with legacy technology, processes that rely on manual intervention, and even paper. Despite all of that, everyone puts in 100 percent.

Q: What skills do you need to be a successful delivery manager?

In the health industry, especially with digital transformation projects, agile ways of working are ‘on trend’. However, the public sector, including health, often has a very waterfall-style governance structure. So the fact that I’ve got a traditional project management background has been really useful because things like risk management become incredibly important when dealing with clients in this sector.

Agile is great for focusing on maximising value for the user and getting to the right answer to the problem, rather than just delivering a predefined solution. But you usually need to meet stakeholders halfway, because the reality is you do have to take into account budget and time constraints. The client needs confidence in the process and the outcomes. So, using some traditional project management skills alongside agile is key. It’s all about applying the right level of governance to ensure success.

Q: What makes the health sector different from other industries?

The biggest difference in health is the clinical safety aspect. Every piece of software that could affect a patient must go through clinical safety checks to ensure it’s safe. This means making sure the technology won’t cause harm or display information incorrectly, which could lead to serious consequences or even death. There’s an extra layer of governance in health to ensure patient safety that other industries might not have.

So, at Made Tech we’ve made sure that clinical safety is integrated into our processes from day one. Some people build their product in an agile way and then, at the end, go, “Okay, we need to get it approved by clinical safety,” which can add an extra six weeks. But we bring clinical safety colleagues along with us from the start. They understand what we’re doing and provide input from the beginning. It’s almost an ‘assure as you go’ way of working to minimise timescales and reduce risks from the start.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face when delivering change? 

Resistance to change in the healthcare sector

In my experience, if you look at the change purely through a technology lens, the operational impacts can get ignored. This can lead to situations where new functionality isn’t used because there wasn’t enough training or communication. People generally don’t like change, and if it’s not introduced properly, it can lead to resistance and inefficiency.

66% of dissatisfaction with a system is down to how it’s been implemented rather than the system itself.”

Users often don’t care about the technical details; they just want the system to work and meet their needs. Making sure that an implementation is successful from day one means bringing the users on the journey with you and taking into account their feedback. Our job is to make sure that the technology supports the users’ needs rather than just using the latest technology for its own sake. 

Lack of joined up thinking between healthcare Trusts

Another challenge is trying to get everything aligned to one common goal. Healthcare Trusts operate autonomously to an extent, so that they can independently make decisions about the technology they use based on their patient demographic and needs.

However, this autonomy can lead to many different versions of technology and software, making interoperability a significant problem. It also means at any one point in time, many different digital transformation projects are in train. 

The result of this is that whilst great value is delivered for a small subset of users or patients, it can often fail to deliver some low-hanging fruit for a wider set of patients just because they weren’t aware of a similar project in another area that could have been replicated.

It’s hard to be proactive and share information because it can take focus away from day-to-day project delivery. But in my experience, taking the time to communicate and spread the word about what we’re trying to achieve is crucial. Even if it doesn’t always deliver immediate returns, it means the sector can join up the dots and avoid missing out on opportunities.

Q: Where do you think budgets in the health sector would be best spent? 

That’s a great question. With current budget constraints and an urgent need to make things more efficient, it’s really important to decide whether to spend your money on new technology or to spend it on improving existing processes. I see people using workarounds on a daily basis to deal with inefficient processes and outdated legacy technologies – most of which we really shouldn’t see in 2024. I believe that healthcare organisations would get better returns trying to fix these first. 

For example, one of our projects involved digitising storage for paper records. It wasn’t the most technologically advanced solution, but it had a massive impact. We replaced physical paper records stored in warehouses with digital records accessible at the point of need. This significantly reduced the time and resources spent on retrieving records physically, freeing up staff to focus more on patient care rather than admin.

Another example is the Lloyd George records, which are traditional paper records that take up massive storage space. Digitising these records and creating a central storage solution accessible by any GP makes patient records readily available, which improves efficiency without introducing any complex new technology. These simple practical improvements directly impact patient care.

Q: Is AI the answer to everything in the health sector?

AI is definitely the buzzword these days, and it can offer significant benefits, but it’s certainly not the answer to everything. In the health sector, for instance, AI can review scans and flag potential issues without needing a consultant’s immediate input. However, a negative result from AI doesn’t necessarily guarantee accuracy. 

For example, digitising handwritten medical records using AI might seem efficient, but AI could struggle with hand-written notes. While AI can help search through digital records, there’s always a risk of missing critical information. In my opinion, AI should be used to complement and enhance existing processes, not replace them entirely.

Q:  Any final thoughts on how we can approach digital transformation in healthcare more effectively?

To my mind it’s about connecting the dots so that all digital transformation initiatives contribute meaningfully to the bigger picture. Chunking tasks into manageable pieces is essential, but it must be done with a clear understanding of how each piece fits into the broader puzzle. A commitment to joined-up thinking, means that our digital transformation projects have the impact we expect and ultimately improves the quality of care delivered to all patients. 

For more information about what we offer take a look at our Health and Life Sciences web pages.

The post Mend it before you spend it – budgeting wisely in the healthcare sector appeared first on Made Tech.

The 3 sectors with most to gain from data transformation

In the energy and utilities sector, data and AI can revolutionise how we manage resources, ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come. In health, better data integration and management can literally save lives, improving patient outcomes and enhancing the quality of care. Public safety services, on the other hand, stand to benefit immensely from more integrated and responsive data systems, which have a day-to-day impact on societal well-being and safety.

These 3 sectors are among those with the most to gain from a data transformation. By tapping into the transformative potential of data, this blog explores how organisations in these sectors can turn data challenges into powerful opportunities for positive change.

Enhancing public safety services through data integration

Public safety organisations face significant challenges – managing data from a wide range of sources, making sure systems work together, and meeting high public expectations for digital services. 

The complexity of modern crime and the need for real-time updates make these issues even more difficult to manage. For example, handling large amounts of data from crime reports, probation services and court proceedings is a daunting task.

But automating and integrating this data should be a no-brainer. Take for example a repeat offender interacting with multiple agencies. Integrated data can help spot early intervention points, potentially reducing re-offending rates. Also, automating routine tasks like a data search for a missing person across multiple databases can greatly improve response times and outcomes.

Top tips for data transformation in the public safety sector:

A unified approach to drive better patient outcomes in the health sector

The health sector grapples with fragmented data sources and a lack of standardised processes. Despite significant investments, inefficiencies remain, such as the reliance on paper records and the proliferation of ‘ghost records’ (extra patient records due to duplicated data).

Digitisation of Lloyd George records

Some progress has already been made, such as the digitisation of paper records. The NHS has successfully digitised over 30 million Lloyd George records (known to most as the old manila brown folders with realms of patient notes). This shift to digital records has transformed patient data accessibility, streamlined operations, improved patient care and reduced part of the administrative burdens.

Another advantage of integrating data across various healthcare settings is that the data can be shared across digital platforms like the NHS App. This approach not only improves interoperability and data accuracy but also provides healthcare professionals with comprehensive and up-to-date patient information.

Data-driven insight in social care

For instance, Made Tech’s collaboration with Skills for Care on adult social care has been instrumental in bringing together data from different sources. The data-driven insight it provides, allows for better analysis, policy-making and service planning, ultimately leading to better outcomes for users.

Top tips for data transformation in the health and social care sector:

Transforming energy and utilities management with data-driven insights

The energy and utilities sector is one of the highest producers of data among all industries. It deals with vast amounts of data generated from diverse sources, like smart metres, weather data and consumer usage patterns. The National Grid handles over 1.3 terabytes of data daily from various sources, including renewable energy inputs, grid sensors, and weather forecasts. Managing this data effectively is crucial for maintaining grid stability, allocating resources and improving service reliability. 

Predictive maintenance, powered by AI and machine learning, is a vital innovation. For example, companies have achieved maintenance cost reductions of 10-25%¹ by identifying equipment failures before they occur. This not only minimises downtime but also extends the lifespan of critical infrastructure, ensuring more reliable services.​ 

By analysing usage patterns and integrating data from various customer touch points, utility companies can develop more flexible pricing models. Data can also help identify customers who may struggle with bill payments, allowing companies to proactively offer support and reduce instances of bad debt.

Top tips for data transformation in the energy, utilities and environmental sector:

How we can help

Adopting a data-driven approach and investing in strong data management tools offers major benefits, turning data into a valuable asset. By seeing data as an opportunity rather than a problem, organisations across all sectors can make huge strides in transforming their operations, services, and customer experiences.

Using our deep understanding of sector-specific challenges and our innovative approach to digital transformation, we help organisations get the most out of their data. We believe that by focusing on data transformation in key sectors, where the stakes are high – like energy and utilities, healthcare, and public safety, we can make a real impact. 

Our commitment to simplicity, effective problem-solving, and outcome-driven results, means that the solutions we deliver have real, tangible benefits. Visit our data and AI website pages or contact our industry experts to learn more about how we can support your journey towards data excellence.

1.  https://businessday.ng/opinion/article/harnessing-big-data-and-ai-for-a-sustainable-energy-future/ ↩︎

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Q: What attracted you to the health and care sector?

I began working in the health and care sector in Leeds 20 years ago with the hope of changing the world for the better. I’d previously worked largely in the financial services sector, but the launch of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) for the NHS was the holy grail so many of us wanted to work on.

The most rewarding aspect of this work was knowing that the solutions I worked on directly improved the efficiency of healthcare services and would ultimately help to make patients’ experiences better with improved outcomes. The complexity and scale of the challenges in the sector was crying out for innovative digital solutions. It was amazing to have the opportunity to be part of these transformative initiatives.

Many of the digital challenges I worked on all those years ago are still with us today, but I am still determined to find a way for us to resolve them.  l feel we have “unfinished business”. 

That’s what keeps me motivated, and gets me out of bed in the morning, and it’s what made me join Made Tech a few months ago, so that I can continue to make a difference.

Q: What are some of the key questions Wes Streeting should be asking?

Why is there still so much paper in the health and care sector?

Despite a considerable amount of investment, many healthcare departments still rely on outdated systems and processes. These all get in the way of efficiency. You don’t have to wait long before you see someone writing down some information, another person typing it into a system, and then the information gets faxed and retyped elsewhere. Everywhere you look there are whiteboards for triaging, old-fashioned SMS bleepers, and an overwhelming amount of paper. This highlights just how far behind healthcare is in terms of digital processes. I came across a recent survey that found that more than 42% of NHS processes are still paper-bound.

Why isn’t patient data quality improving more quickly? 

One example which really shows the scale of the problem are ‘ghost records’. There are 5.8 million extra patient records than people in the UK due to multiple records across different systems. Fragmented data sources, poor data management and inconsistent data quality, get in the way of implementing new digital technologies, especially AI tools. All too often I’ve found that tight budgets prevent the purchase of tech that could help manage this data. 

Why are we still reinventing the wheel in healthcare?

The lack of standardised processes in the NHS is stark. Each hospital trust insists on its own methods, resulting in 215 trusts managing processes 215 different ways, despite the core patient care processes being largely the same. I believe that this cultural resistance to a single, unified approach has blocked many efficiency and digital transformation initiatives in healthcare. The Integrated Care Boards are tasked with unifying the strategy at a regional level, but even regional synergy across a multitude of systems is a huge challenge.

Q: If you had to pick one thing to solve, what would be top of your list?

Digitising social care has become my new passion. This wasn’t really considered in the NPfIT days, and some would argue it hasn’t really been the focus of much NHS transformation.

My blog post just after the election on digital priorities for a national care service caused a lot of interest and debate – both online and as I chatted to people within the Leeds “health-tech” ecosystem.

Better social care is crucial for efficient healthcare delivery. As I mentioned in my blog, the new government’s commitment to a National Care Service with national care standards is great news. The top priority will be to tackle IT integration within the social care sector. Seamless communication and interoperability are the basic foundations for effective care delivery across different settings. Getting this right will transform the patient journey and fix some of the challenges that have been around for decades.

Q: How can health and care organisations speed up innovation and project delivery?

The pandemic showed us that the NHS can actually make changes very quickly in response to a significant challenge. However, we’re now seeing a slow and painful slide back. I’m noticing slower, bureaucratic processes post-pandemic. This is stopping innovation and progress.

We need to recapture some of that ‘blitz-spirit’ and keep the momentum going. To do that I think we need to:

• Encourage agile ways of working across the board – in all departments and at all levels.
• Promote a culture of empowerment and risk-taking among health and care leaders. This will speed up decision-making and the implementation of desperately needed solutions. 
• Investigate and draw upon private sector ways of working. This will help bridge the gap between innovation and implementation. 
• Share knowledge with other government agencies (non-health related) and industries. This will enrich the sector’s approach to innovation and change management.

Partnerships in the health sector are key

Partnerships are also essential in the health sector to speed up delivery and implementation. Working with vendors who are used to collaborating can lead to innovative solutions that individual companies might struggle to achieve on their own.

Made Tech has years of experience working in various consortiums, collaborating with tier-one companies, mid-sized organisations, and niche SMEs. This allows us to form diverse teams that can either lead or support projects. Our approach offers flexibility that larger consultancies can’t provide.

Our ability to navigate complex negotiations with NHS foundation suppliers, combined with our deep understanding of data security and clinical risk management, sets us apart. This expertise allows us to develop and implement solutions that put the patient first.

If you’d like to find out more, take a look at our health services web pages or get in touch with our healthcare experts today.

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The healthcare revolution

However, looking even further back to the healthcare ‘revolution’ of 76 years ago, many of Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan’s original aspirations for the NHS are still very relevant. Things such as comprehensive coverage, integration, and preventive care continue to be key drivers. Wes Streeting’s vision today includes many supporting goals such as resource sharing across care settings and expanding the roles of healthcare professionals such as opticians and pharmacists.

National standards for social care

But what excites me most, is the new government’s commitment to a National Care Service, with national standards for care quality. We’ve known for a while that better social care is crucial and significantly impacts efficient healthcare delivery. Back in 2002, the Department of Health’s strategy for NPfIT aimed to develop and integrate social care IT alongside NHS IT, but this goal soon fell by the wayside.

What should Wes Streeting focus on?

This time, I believe we can make a real difference. Here are my top 5 tips for Wes Streeting and his team to consider in delivering a National Care Service.

1. Translate the lessons from health to social care

While some challenges from 20 years ago in the NHS remain, there has been significant progress in many areas. Through the efforts of NHS Digital and NHS England, there have been major advancements in data standards, widespread adoption of messaging standards, open APIs, developer toolkits, and a single digital access point to services. The government now needs to follow suit in social care. They need to:

Invest in a unified care record across multiple settings

Integrate services into the NHS App and NHS.UK

Consider telehealth and remote monitoring approaches

Lean on data-driven decision making

2.  Fix IT integration across healthcare systems

Connecting IT and communication systems within primary and secondary healthcare and between Trusts, is still challenging, but at least there’s a clear roadmap for achieving it. The lack of communication and interoperability in social care is an even bigger beast. The gaps are evident not only between care providers but also between the providers and central systems. To achieve a seamless patient journey across different care settings, start with a clear roadmap for digital integration. To do this you need to: 

• scope out what’s ‘in’ and what’s ‘out’ when considering integration
• use phased deliveries to prove value early on and test key principles
• secure stakeholder buy-in and take them on the journey, even through potential setbacks

3. Create a social care skills plan

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan was a huge step forward in developing a resourcing strategy and fixing some of the underlying staffing problems. Developing a similar plan for the social care workforce should be a priority for the new Health Secretary. Made Tech’s work with Skills for Care has shown the important role organisations like this play in supporting care providers and their staff. 

As a first step, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) could roll-out the Skills Record for care workers that they’ve been weighing up, in order to standardise training records in the Adult Social Care (ASC) sector. This would provide a permanent, portable, and verifiable record of skills and achievements, helping workers take ownership of their training and qualifications. This would give care workers a clear development path, and elevate social care into a profession that they can be proud of.

4. Understand the needs of health and social care users

The age-old mistake of creating solutions without consulting the end-users must be avoided at all costs. This was a lesson learnt at great expense 20 years ago. In order to succeed in any project, you’ll need to acknowledge and tap into the diversity of users. Care sector users include DHSC analysts and strategists, local authorities, care providers, care workers, unpaid carers and the service users themselves. You need to make sure that their needs are fully understood using strong user research and co-design. Partnering with agencies like Skills for Care, who have strong networks across these stakeholders, can help to get access to the right people and you can then include their valuable insights as part of any digital transformation solution.

5. Use AI and data to improve social care services

AI and advances in data science are revolutionising healthcare and can do the same for social care. These technologies can improve accuracy in personalised care plans and streamline data management and processes. To make the most of AI, the government needs to:

• prioritise data optimisation
• invest in advanced analytics platforms 
• establish robust data governance frameworks 
• improve data quality 
• continue to prioritise patient privacy

A unique perspective on both health and care

My time at Made Tech has shown me that there’s an incredible opportunity for improvements in the patient journey across health and care sectors. Along with our work at NHS England, I’m also proud of our long-term support in the social care sector. With our unique perspective on both health and care, and especially around integration and data-driven decisioning, I hope I can personally play my part in overcoming the challenges we perhaps failed to do 20 years ago. 

As Bevan famously said, “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.” I believe that my colleagues, competitors, customers, and everyone in the health and care ecosystem still have this faith and continue to fight for it.

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The post Digital priorities for the National Care Service appeared first on Made Tech.

In this post, we want to dive into a really interesting and challenging part of the project: the SMS text messaging interface. Though the main service is fully accessible online, the team wanted to make sure it was available to as many people as possible, so we also built an SMS text messaging interface for people who, for whatever reason, are unable to access a computer or smart device. In this post, we want to explore why we built this channel, and the challenges we faced along the way.

Making mental health services for children and young people as accessible as possible

Gloucestershire has a wide range of mental health services. The services help young people with depression, problems with food and eating, self-harm, abuse, violence or anger, and anxiety, among other difficulties. So it’s really important that people are able to get to the right support service as quickly and easily as possible. It’s this signposting that the service was designed to do.

As you’d expect, the team built a web service based on multiple-choice questions to make the service as easy to use as possible. The user research team also identified that an SMS text messaging interface was vitally important in making the service as accessible as possible. Though we don’t necessarily anticipate the text messaging interface being in high demand, it’s an important way to make sure the service is accessible to as many people as possible. 

This includes people who don’t have access to a computer or smart device – but also, crucially, people who may be prevented from accessing those devices. Given this context, we were keen to put time and effort into this channel to make sure that no one gets left behind.

Creating a fully-functional CMS 

A key part of the project was to create a new content management system to manage the information users engage with when they use the service. 

The questions posed to users were developed alongside clinicians, and were hard-coded for both the web and text service, which means it can’t be readily changed. So we had to make sure this information was 100% accurate, and get it signed off by the risk management team. Getting this to work for the text as well as the web service was probably our single biggest technical challenge on this delivery. 

Behind the scenes, both services rely on the same information, but it’s presented to the user in very different ways. On the web, multiple choice questions are a good option, but with a text service the user needs to reply to a series of questions with a word or a number. 

These different interfaces pose significant challenges for managing the underlying information and it took a lot of user research to get this right. Mace & Menter provided user research for the whole project, and derived which “tags” were attached to questions, forming the basis of the design of the question and answer algorithm which we went on to implement.

The combined work of Mace & Menter and NHS Gloucestershire helped us rapidly iterate through discovery, alpha and beta phases, and user research insights were indispensable for the text part of the service in particular.

SMS limitations

The text component was most difficult to implement. We were fundamentally limited to a total of 918 characters (6 text messages’ worth) in any one interaction, so we had to make sure all questions and instructions were under 918 characters at a time or they wouldn’t send. 

This presented a UX challenge. We had to meet the character count while making sure all information users would need is clear in each message. Web content was easier to edit because there was no word limit and a lot of the information was freely available on the NHS site.

We integrated with GOV.UK Notify to handle the messaging. This lets public sector organisations send emails, text messages and letters to their users. It solved so many problems for us right from the outset, but did present a few challenges when testing and demoing. 

For example, before going live, we were limited to sending a total of 50 messages a day, of 160 characters each. Again – some questions spanned multiple messages due to their content, so we’d often use up our allowance in the testing stage, and by the time we got to demos, the service wouldn’t actually work. This mainly meant we had to be a bit strategic on demo days, but wasn’t a limitation when the service went live. 

Though the service is called GOV.UK Notify, its ability to allow replies from end users was absolutely essential. Harnessing this functionality is a big reason we felt that we fully embraced the power of the service.

Throughout this work we fully embraced AWS Cloud Services and AWS Managed Services wherever possible (focusing on ECS, ECR, RDS Aurora, DynamoDB, Codepipeline, S3, AWS WAF V2). Using this tech across our hosting, integrations, release, and storage needs allowed us to create a truly reliable, scalable, and secure service that puts the needs of people first.

A template for future projects

This was the first time we’d worked on a mental health project for children and young people. On the whole we were able to work in the agile manner we strive for. We successfully responded and adapted to new requirements as they came in.

Making sure everyone was aligned on desired user-outcomes and specific technical requirements for content management in a clinical setting, and how it was set up, was challenging. The need for clinical safety is paramount, and we quickly learned that this means much extra time is needed to make sure the content is right the first time.

We now have a better idea of how much time we need to spend with the wider team to make decisions. For example, we’ll bring the developers in earlier to help us ask the right questions to identify user needs. 

We filled out loads of clinical governance forms throughout which expanded our knowledge of the clinical risk process, and helped us figure out people’s responsibilities. But there were governance layers that we didn’t anticipate, which did slow us down somewhat. 

Understanding the process for clinical governance was another learning point for us. We learned that working with the governance team in parallel on these approvals helped to speed up delivery. As partners, we needed to be aware of the clinical governance approvals that needed to be in place, and as a blended project team, we found it was most effective to get the ball rolling on governance approvals as early as possible, as these important checks can take a while to get right.

Involving governance partners and approvers from the start means there are no big surprises for anyone that might be showstoppers. We learned that it’s important to talk to your governance teams as early as possible so everyone is in the loop and ensuring what is built will meet all the checks.

We’re now in a better place to identify hurdles as early as possible, and make sure the right checks and balances are in place. We’ll draw on these past experiences to identify challenges earlier on so we can mitigate them, and use our work with the NHS in Gloucestershire as a template. This will free up time to focus on other challenges and build on our previous success. 

Our main takeaway from all this is that delivering projects that provide clinical services to the people that need them can be incredibly rewarding. But you need to plan things out carefully. 

Making the best possible version of technology

We’ll know more about the impact of the service when it’s been live for a while, but what we can say right now is the process itself was super-fulfilling. We had really good relationships with the stakeholders in Gloucestershire, who were fully engaged throughout so we could collaborate to build the best possible service. Being aligned on our goals and objectives helped to ease the strain on the challenges we faced.

Even though it was difficult at times, we kept reminding ourselves of its importance and how worthwhile it was to create something that can help so many young people get the help they need quicker and more efficiently.

Visit our health and care page if you’d like to read more about how Made Tech delivers technology projects in the health sector.

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The past decade or so has seen different central government approaches to digital transformation in the NHS. This has culminated in The Health And Care Bill 2021, arriving at a decentralised approach with oversight from central government. This represents a massive opportunity for transformation if we adopt the right mindset, but we must learn lessons from decentralised efforts in the past.

Avoiding the digital graveyard

I’ve seen some incredible work that has come about as a result of decentralised efforts. But the reality is that so many of them did not live up to their full potential. 

These local products and services worked, but didn’t interoperate, and didn’t amount to a joined-up approach for patients. And this decentralised period inevitably saw a large amount of duplicated effort, with local organisations each working to solve similar problems.

More recently, the NHS App demonstrates what can be achieved when decentralised efforts are coordinated, with a modular approach to solving needs one at a time. With 16 million new users since the addition of NHS COVID Pass in May, and 265,000 new organ donors registered using the app, the app is making a real difference to millions of people.

It was a combination of mulling the future direction of NHS delivery, and looking back at my own experiences that made me stop and think: what more can we at Made Tech do? The Made Well Collective is our answer to that question.

Introducing the Made Well Collective

Made Well Collective is a community that anyone working in NHS delivery is welcome to join. Here you can find like-minded people and organisations to co-fund the development of digital products that solve common problems. In time, the Made Well Collective will grow into a library of technology products and assets which the community can freely use, adapt and improve without fear of vendor lock-in.

We’ve kicked off with our virtual visits service, which lets people book an online virtual visit with a loved one. It was developed during the pandemic, but can be used anywhere that in-person visits are difficult, or simply where they’d be beneficial. It’s fully open source, so it’s free to reuse, adapt and extend – and so it’s a perfect candidate to kick off the Made Well Collective’s library of products. A big thank you again to Hillingdon, Kettering, and London North West University NHS Hospital Trusts for partnering up with us in building virtual visits.

Bit by bit, we’ll build a library of technologies that NHS trusts and other organisations can pick and choose from as needed. A modular approach avoids over-committing time and resources to wholesale transformation when one problem can be solved at a time – especially when that problem has already been solved somewhere else.

Benefits of a collaborative approach

Co-funding projects with others has many benefits. By sharing them, the costs are reduced for everyone involved. This lets organisations build solutions to problems that may not otherwise have been possible, or have been shelved to tackle in the future. It also means organisations can tackle bigger and more complex projects with larger budgets, such as when integrations with other systems are required. Together, we can discuss the business case for the various possible projects and work on agreed priorities.

Likewise, co-delivery brings many shared benefits. People and skills can be drawn from more teams. This makes projects viable that wouldn’t have been if tackled in isolation, for example, if the people needed aren’t available inside one organisation. Critical roles can also be shared, so you only need to find one clinical safety officer from any one of the teams involved. This reduces the burdens placed on the individual organisations involved. 

Co-delivery also increases the pool of users available for user research, meaning richer data that benefits everyone. And by involving people from more organisations, you get a broader set of skills, experiences, ideas and ways of working – and greater diversity in thinking – than you would tackling a problem alone. Finally, knowledge sharing is a valuable benefit that runs throughout the project – from the initial discovery, through delivery, continuing after services go live.

Of course, the needs of every trust and every organisation is different. But the strength of an open, collaborative and agile approach is that those needs can be identified and products adapted accordingly.

At Made Tech, we can help bring together organisations looking to co-fund and solve these similar problems. We can make our services available in building digital products. And we can help build the skills your team may need for future technology delivery. 

Along the way we’ll advocate for agile delivery, because agile approaches have, time and again, proven the best way to build digital products which meet core user needs quickly and efficiently. And we’ll advocate for using open standards, to make sure all the great work that goes on can work together, and be built on and improved over time.

Build, share, communicate

One question I have been asked once or twice in sharing these plans in person is: why would I pay to develop a product, then make it available to others for free? I should add I think this was asked hypothetically, in anticipation of others asking it, but it’s a great question to address!

But though it’s a great question, it speaks to a way of thinking that has to change. The bigger picture is that when we collaborate and share in the open, everyone benefits. Other products will become available that you are free to reuse and adapt in turn. And by sharing your products in the open, they can be extended and improved by others in ways that benefit the original creators. But the biggest reason is that if we stay in that gear, we simply won’t get anywhere. 

So I want to end with a clarion call – not only to get involved with Made Tech Collective, but, more generally, to take an expansive, collaborative approach to developing future NHS technology. To build using open standards and technologies. To share your code and other assets for reuse and adaptation. And to talk about your efforts, your learnings, and – yes – the failures – in the open. At Made Tech we can encourage and facilitate collaboration, but we need your help to make it happen.

Please do head on over to the Made Well Collective site if you haven’t already. Please look around, join the community, and let us know what you think. Consider it very much in public beta – we are wide open to feedback.

Here’s the video of my Leeds Digital Festival talk, complete with cameo appearance from my Jack Russell Mickey:

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