Adult social care leaders want to move faster on…

Adult social care (ASC) leaders across the UK say technology enabled care (TEC) is now central to delivering prevention, independence, and sustainable services – and want to move faster.

According to the third PA Consulting and TEC Services Association (TSA) annual study, 78% of senior leaders want to accelerate their TEC programmes, and 96% say their organisation would rethink how care is delivered if TEC could enable prevention. Nine out of ten ASC leaders believe that learning from each other will be one of the most effective ways to make progress over the next year – but they want support from the wider TEC sector to build skills, confidence, and capacity.

The report, TEC outlook 2026: Sustaining progress, scaling impact, draws on a survey of 79 senior decision makers across 71 adult social care organisations. The results show a strong belief in TEC’s potential to improve outcomes and manage rising demand, yet highlights persistent challenges around workforce capability, underuse of TEC data, and uncertainty around long-term funding.

Local authorities spent £29.4bn on adult social care last year – £2.3bn more than the previous year. More than two million requests for support were made in 2024/25, and directors anticipate a £623m overspend in the coming year. Reinforced by insights from PA’s recent Digitally-powered prevention report, leaders increasingly view TEC as a practical route to prevention, earlier intervention and better day-to-day decision making.

Other key findings from TEC outlook 2026:

Clear priorities for the year ahead: Integrating TEC into prevention and early intervention (71%), aligning TEC with wider adult social care transformation (65%).
Younger adults still underserved: For people with learning disabilities and autism, only 18% regularly use TEC with this group, down from 33% last year. Leaders cite challenges around safeguarding (73%), low workforce awareness (68%), and insufficient funding (66%).
Workforce understanding remains a barrier: Only 16% of leaders say their workforce has a strong understanding of TEC’s benefits; 32% report low or no understanding. Over half (55%) say practitioners would benefit from more support to talk confidently about TEC.
TEC insight is underused: While 62% feel ready to harness data and insights from TEC, 77% cite lack of insight and data integration with core systems as a top barrier. 69% of leaders report their workforce has difficulty knowing how to access TEC insights and crucially, 70% say staff struggle to use them in decision making.
Funding outlook mixed: One in four leaders say long-term financial sustainability and long-term funding is the single biggest barrier to achieving TEC ambitions over the next year.
TEC use continues to broaden: Local authorities report regular use of standalone devices (41%), consumer tech (27%), and ADL/activity monitoring (25%) with between 37% and 51% planning to expand use across categories.

TEC is fundamental to delivering prevention at scale and no longer considered a side project. But belief alone won’t deliver change, and some of the biggest opportunities remain untapped, especially with working age adults. The sector has a shared ambition to drive collective momentum but now needs bold, visible leadership and the confidence to embed TEC into everyday practice. With clear priorities, streamlined pathways for using TEC insight, and sustained investment, local authorities can unlock high impact results quickly. This is the moment to move from promising pilots to population level change. If we can learn with and from each other and focus on the outcomes that matter – independence, earlier intervention, and better use of frontline time – we can turn TEC into one of the strongest levers for a sustainable social care system.”

Robert Turnbull PA care technology expert

Across adult social care, we are seeing growing recognition of the role technology enabled care can play in helping people live independently for longer and supporting services to respond to rising demand. What this research highlights clearly is the importance of confidence and capability across the workforce. Technology only delivers real value when people feel able to use it, understand the insight it generates, and apply that insight in everyday decision making. By sharing learning across the sector and building that confidence, we can scale approaches that improve outcomes for people while helping services deliver more proactive and preventative support.”

Alyson Scurfield Chief Executive, TSA

What leaders can do now to accelerate TEC adoption

Build workforce confidence. Make TEC a core part of the adult social care approach – not an addon – and share a clear, person-centred narrative about TEC’s value. Create supportive environments for testing new approaches and ensure managers have the time and skills to coach TEC enabled practice.
Embed TEC insights into everyday decisions. Set clear expectations for how practitioners use insights and make it simple by avoiding the use of complex dashboards and encouraging the use of AI for analysis. Start with quick win use cases where impact is measurable, then expand systematically.
Strengthen the investment case. Begin in areas where outcomes are trackable and data is robust and then adopt simple, standardised financial models agreed with finance. Use repeatable measure to capture human impact (improved confidence, independence, reduced anxiety for families) and demand shifts (avoided calls/visits, earlier interventions and improved outcomes).