State of the Nation: Global Perspectives
Series 3 / Episode 2
Episode 2: Lessons from Global Innovations in Social Care
“It is important that people who draw on care and support are able to live the best and most fulfilling lives, because of the contribution that people working in care make every day.”
In Episode 2 of State of Our Nation: Global Perspectives, Kari is joined by Professor Vic Rayner OBE, Chief Executive of the National Care Forum, for a wide-ranging conversation that blends personal experience, international insight, and a clear challenge to how we think about social care.
Rather than abstract policy debate, Vic grounds the discussion in real places, real people, and real examples of what social care can look like when it is designed around independence, dignity, and connection.
A personal route into social care
Vic’s journey into social care began long before her professional career. Growing up, she spent time accompanying her mother, an occupational therapist, into different care settings. Those early experiences left a lasting impression.
She recalls seeing, first hand, how the right care and support can fundamentally change people’s daily lives — not by taking over, but by enabling independence and possibility.
Technology that supports independence, not surveillance
One of the strongest themes in the episode is Vic’s long-standing focus on digital transformation in social care and her frustration that the sector is still not being ambitious enough.
Drawing on international examples, Vic describes technologies that have been used for decades elsewhere but are still treated as novel or risky in the UK. In the Netherlands, she explains, acoustic monitoring has been in place for nearly 30 years. Rather than recording people constantly, the technology detects changes in sound - coughing, movement, distress and alerts staff only when needed.
She describes seeing a live demonstration where a small overnight team monitored thousands of people in their own homes, with a deep understanding of each individual’s normal patterns. A sound that might be harmless for one person could signal risk for another and the response was informed, timely, and proportionate.
In Norway, Vic saw sensor-based technology being used to reduce falls and support independence in care settings. Sensors detect when someone gets up at night, allowing staff to offer support without restricting movement or removing autonomy.
In both cases, the technology is not about control. It is about challenging risk-averse assumptions and creating care environments where people can safely do more for themselves.
Data that proves what social care really delivers
For Vic, technology also unlocks something the sector has long struggled with: credible, transferable data.
She argues that social care already delivers better health outcomes than healthcare in many cases but lacks the data infrastructure to prove it at scale. Internationally, she has seen how digital systems generate evidence not just about efficiency, but about outcomes that matter to people: independence, wellbeing, agency, and quality of life.
She contrasts this with the UK’s tendency to measure safety and risk, rather than whether care has genuinely improved someone’s life. Without robust, comparable data, innovation stays trapped in pilots that never scale.
As Vic puts it, policymakers need confidence that if something works in one place, it can work elsewhere — not endless local experimentation that goes nowhere.
From crisis response to prevention
As Vic reflects near the end of the episode, care is not a crisis affecting “other people”. It is something most of us will encounter, in one way or another. The question is whether we design systems that allow people to live well — or continue to respond only when things fall apart.
Episode 2 of State of our Nation Global Perspectives is out now.
You can find the series on Spotify or listen to each episode on our website. Just click on the link to the right.
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