6 min read
A care group delivering residential, supported living, and domiciliary care services with several hundred staff across multiple regions. The organisation had invested in modern technology platforms but struggled with adoption. Systems that should have improved efficiency were underused, and staff regularly reverted to older, less efficient ways of working. The gap between what the technology could do and what people actually used it for was widening with every new rollout.
Service: Tech Consulting Care sub-sector: Residential, supported living, domiciliary care
The care sector workforce is diverse in its relationship with technology. Some staff are confident and comfortable with digital tools. Others find new systems overwhelming, particularly when training is limited and support feels distant. In a care organisation where the priority is always the person in front of you, learning a new software system will always feel secondary to delivering care.
Previous technology rollouts had followed a familiar pattern: a system was selected centrally, configured by IT, announced to the organisation, and launched with a training session. Attendance at training was inconsistent because care delivery couldn't stop for everyone to attend. Those who missed the training were expected to learn from colleagues or figure it out themselves. Within weeks, a significant portion of the workforce had either never used the new system or had tried it once, encountered friction, and gone back to their previous approach.
The central IT team was too small to provide hands-on support to every care worker across every region. When someone struggled with a system, their options were to submit a support ticket and wait, or ask a colleague who might know slightly more than they did. For time-pressured care workers, the easier option was usually to revert to what they already knew: paper forms, spreadsheets, or simply not completing the digital task.
This wasn't a technology problem. The systems worked. The training material existed. The issue was the gap between the central IT team that understood the technology and the frontline care workers who needed to use it. That gap was geographic, cultural, and practical. Care workers in a home 100 miles from head office didn't feel connected to the IT team, and the IT team couldn't be physically present in every home.
We designed and implemented a software champions programme that placed a technology advocate in every region and key department across the organisation.
Champions were selected from existing staff, not recruited externally. We looked for people who were already informally helping colleagues with technology: the care coordinator who showed new starters how to use the rota system, the registered manager who had figured out the reporting tools and was happy to share. These individuals already had credibility with their peers and an understanding of the day-to-day pressures of care work.
Each champion received structured training that went beyond the standard user training. They learned not just how to use the core systems but why features were designed the way they were, what common mistakes look like, and how to troubleshoot the issues that most frequently cause frustration. The training was practical, focused on the specific workflows their colleagues would encounter, and included techniques for supporting colleagues who find technology challenging.
A champions community was established with regular meetings (monthly video calls and a dedicated Teams channel) where champions could share what was working, raise issues they couldn't resolve, and hear about upcoming changes before they happened. This created a two-way communication channel that hadn't existed before: frontline experience feeding back to the IT team, and IT plans communicated to the frontline through trusted local voices.
Champions were embedded into every subsequent system rollout. Before a new feature or system was launched, champions received early access and training, then supported their local teams through the transition. This meant that when a care worker in a remote region encountered a problem on day one, there was someone nearby who could help immediately, not an IT ticket that might be answered tomorrow.
The programme was given visible support from senior leadership. Champions were recognised in team meetings and internal communications. The role was acknowledged as a meaningful contribution, not an additional burden on top of existing responsibilities.
Technology adoption improved measurably across the organisation. Systems that had previously been underused saw increased engagement as champions worked alongside their colleagues to demonstrate practical value in day-to-day care workflows.
IT support tickets for basic queries reduced significantly. Issues that previously generated a ticket and a wait (how do I do X, where do I find Y, this doesn't seem to be working) were now resolved locally by a champion who understood both the system and the context in which it was being used. The IT team's time was freed for more complex technical work.
New system rollouts became noticeably smoother. When the organisation introduced changes, champions were already trained and ready to support their teams. The "launch and hope" approach was replaced by a supported, phased adoption where care workers had someone they trusted standing beside them through the change.
The feedback loop proved to be one of the most valuable outcomes. Champions reported usability issues, workarounds that staff had invented, and features that didn't translate well to care workflows. Several of these insights led to configuration changes that made systems work better for frontline users. The IT team was no longer guessing about how systems were used in practice.
Staff confidence with technology improved across the board. Having a peer who could explain things in plain language, without jargon, and who understood the pressures of care work, made a genuine difference to how people felt about using digital tools.
Software champions appointed across every region and department · Peer support network established for technology adoption · IT support tickets for basic queries reduced significantly · New system rollouts supported by local champions from day one · Feedback loop created between frontline staff and IT
Related service: Tech Consulting
Care workers who once felt unsupported by technology now have a colleague around the corner who can help. The systems that are meant to make care delivery better are finally being used the way they were intended. Technology adoption stopped being something that happened to the workforce and became something the workforce drove for itself.