AI in Social Care

Most care providers sit on years of outcomes data they never really use. Ellis Jenkins got tired of waiting for someone to build the platform his organisation needed, so he went to a university and had them build it with him.

Ellis is owner and CEO of Expanding Horizons, a South Wales provider of supported living and residential care for adults with mental health needs, learning disabilities and complex needs. In this episode we get into how a 20-year-old Excel spreadsheet became a custom AI outcomes platform, and the practical decisions behind it.

Chapters
00:54 Why Tools Fell Short
03:09 Excel Framework Explained
04:43 Finding Smart Partnership
06:18 Funding and Team Buy In
08:52 Building With Universities
11:54 Service Scale and Context
12:55 From Reactive to Proactive
18:56 Assessments Dictation Feature
19:55 Privacy Security and Governance
22:46 Consent and Family Transparency
26:24 Trial Hopes and Change Management
31:35 Advice and Sharing the IP
33:56 Wrap Up and Contact Links

Links
- Expanding Horizons: https://www.expanding-horizons.co.uk
- Ellis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellis-jenkins-651770155
- David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mance

About
David Mance is an independent AI trainer and adviser for UK social care, and founder of AIinSocialCare.com If you're working out how to bring AI in safely – governance, staff training, choosing the right tools – get in touch at aiinsocialcare.com.

#aiinsocialcare #socialcare #supportedliving #caresector #artificialintelligence

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## Pull quotes (Ellis)

"We sit on a goldmine of data that tells us a huge story."

"Nothing will get published or approved without somebody saying, yes, I'm happy with that, and putting our name to it."

"If somebody doesn't want to use this software in regards to their care, that's not a problem. I respect that."

"I fell into social care. But it's one of those things that when it's got you, it doesn't let you go."

Kevin Humphrys runs two care homes. He also built his own AI stack, with no tech background and no tech department, tool by tool, learning as he went. This is his second time on the podcast, and a lot has changed since the first.

We go right back to the start: realising he couldn't use Claude with resident data, and what he did about it. Then we walk the whole stack. Secure AI through CareSpace. Voice agents handling out-of-hours enquiries with Maxxo AI. Pre-admission assessments recorded and turned into a care plan in minutes instead of hours, with Emma AI. Predictive health monitoring that flags small declines before they become big ones, with PredictaAI.

And then the part almost nobody in care is talking about: running an AI model locally, on a machine in your own office, so your data never leaves the building and you just pay one up-front cost. Plus, the new CQC guidance on AI, and why it reassured him.

If you've heard a lot of AI talk and not much you can actually do on Monday, this one is for you. Kevin is not a tech person. That's the whole point.

**Chapters**

[00:00] The returning guest, and going back to the start
[01:10] Hitting the wall: why consumer AI couldn't touch resident data
[03:30] The fix: CareSpace, redaction in the background, and where Copilot fits
[08:10] The new CQC guidance on AI, and why it reassured him
[11:24] Governance from three pages to 56, built on the seven principles
[17:00] Voice agents for out-of-hours enquiries, without replacing the human
[23:54] Recording the pre-admission assessment: four hours down to 20 minutes
[28:02] Predictive health monitoring, and catching the small declines
[34:47] Running AI locally, so your data never leaves the building
[46:54] Why it's not either/or, and the data we let gather dust
[50:03] Where to start, and how to reach Kevin

**Tools mentioned:** CareSpace, Microsoft Copilot, Maxxo AI, Emma AI, PredictaAI, Nourish, LM Studio, Open WebUI, the NVIDIA Spark. Plus, the AI in Care Alliance (formerly the Oxford Initiative on Generative AI) and its seven principles, and the new CQC guidance on AI.

**Guest:** Kevin Humphrys, CEO, Oakland Care Group. Find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-humphrys/

**About:** David Mance is an independent AI consultant for UK social care, and host of the AI in Social Care podcast. Independent, no vendor commissions, honest about what AI can't do as well as what it can. Find everything at https://aiinsocialcare.com/  

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## Quotes

 "The AI should always be seen as a helper. It should never be seen as a replacement."

 "We've been brilliant at collecting all this data. Then we put it in a locked room and let it get dusty. AI has opened the door to actually using it."

 "This isn't tech stuff. It's downloading a programme like we all do on Windows all the time, and running it."

 "We all have a little concern that CQC might not get it. I actually feel like they got it."

 "It can take four hours to write a care plan, sometimes six to eight. We've got it down to between 20 and 30 minutes."

 "I'm not a tech person. I just enjoy it, I have a go, I learn something new, and then I want to share it with everybody."

Jon Healy spent 20 years as a carer. A year ago, a medical episode took most of his sight, and overnight his life was radically altered.

In this episode he talks about what that taught him. The everyday accessibility tools that turned out to be a lifeline. The job he can still do, just differently. And the surprising ways AI has opened up new work rather than just speeding up the old.

We get into the co-produced course his service users led, which snowballed into a graduation, a recipe book, a book club and a regular quiz. The practical AI wins, from a traffic-free walking route to a World Cup planner built for people who find reading hard. And his honest, measured take on where AI helps in care and where the human has to stay in charge.

Jon also shares the moment AI found a 1981 legal precedent and resolved a tribunal case without a hearing.

A warm, grounded conversation about care, technology and seeing the world differently.

Timestamps

00:00 Jon's story, 20 years in care

01:13 Losing his sight, and relearning everything

02:33 The accessibility setup that keeps him working

08:00 A new perspective: becoming an advocate

10:47 The course that snowballed into a graduation

17:41 How AI actually gets used, day to day

21:37 Advocacy at Parliament, and why care is undervalued

29:46 Where AI could go wrong in care

33:36 What good training looks like

35:31 The 1981 case law that won a tribunal
 

About David Mance

David Mance is an independent AI trainer and consultant, and the founder of AI in Social Care. He helps UK care providers adopt AI safely and effectively. Find out more at https://aiinsocialcare.com/

Most conversations about AI and the care workforce focus on risk, resistance, and what staff don't know. Katie Thorn, Head of Innovation at Digital Care Hub, makes the opposite argument: care workers already have the skills AI needs most.
In this episode, we talk about why communication and empathy are actually an advantage with large language models, the real reason a template AI policy doesn't exist yet, and what the government's "fully digitised by 2029" plan doesn’t go far enough.
Katie is also co-founder of the AI and Social Care Alliance – and we cover how that came about, the gender gap in care, job displacement fears, and what frontline workers really think about AI investment.
In this episode:
01:06 – What Digital Care Hub does (and what it doesn't)
04:07 – How the AI and Social Care Alliance came about
08:47 – Where to go if you want to get up to speed
10:01 – Communication skills as prompting skills
16:37 – Women are 20% more likely to live in digital poverty – and they're 85% of your workforce
19:00 – What a frontline worker said at the first Alliance roundtable
21:09 – Could AI job losses be a recruitment opportunity for care?
24:09 – Why Digital Care Hub hasn’t published a template AI policy (yet)
27:46 – Making AI governance work at board level
34:31 – What good employer-led AI training actually looks like
37:15 – Katie's background: growing up in a nursing home
40:27 – The expensive lesson from picking the wrong tech system
45:45 – Why "fully digitised by 2029" doesn't go far enough

Katie links
https://www.digitalcarehub.co.uk/
Podcast: Control Plus Care: https://www.digitalcarehub.co.uk/podcast/
AI in Care Alliance: https://aiincarealliance.co.uk/ [COMING SOON]

David Mance – CPD-certified AI trainer and consultant for the social care sector. Get resources and tutorials: https://aiinsocialcare.com/

Small providers make up 80% of the care home market, yet when it comes to technology and AI, they're often the last to get support. In this episode, I sit down with Samir Patel – care home owner, operator, and founder of the Care Home Digi Hive community – to talk about his 20-year journey from paper chaos to practical AI implementation.

Samir shares the lightbulb moments that pushed him toward tech, the £25,000 mistake that taught him everything about change management, and why he believes care homes should start with "back office" AI before touching resident data.

Whether you're a startup or a large provider, this conversation is packed with hard-won lessons on making technology work without overwhelming your team.

Find out more about the Digihive community: https://www.carehomedigihive.com/
Samir's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samir-patel-07684912/
Samir's podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@iCareServicesUK/featured
And on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6KKDdIwu5H9ke3dYOPdfu4?si=34c25c9a3559497a&nd=1&dlsi=c30ae3c960dc4482

David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mance/
AIinSocial Care tutorials, podcast and more: https://aiinsocialcare.com/

Most care technology does what it says on the tin. It functions, ticks boxes, completes tasks.

But somewhere in the process of evaluating, procuring and implementing tech, something often gets lost – the relationships that make care actually work.

In this episode, I speak with Paul Shanahan, a clinical lead and behaviour analyst turned part-time coder, who's been wrestling with this challenge.

Paul shares the thinking behind his Relational Care Tool, which is built on real research with service users, carers and care organisations. It helps teams evaluate technology not just on functionality, but on whether it enriches the human experience of care.

We also talk about his digital health passport project, which is tackling one of the most frustrating and overlooked problems in care transitions: the outdated, easily lost, 12-page paper document that's supposed to tell a busy A&E team everything they need to know about a person with complex needs.

If you've ever sat in a procurement meeting and thought "There must be a better way" then this episode is for you.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pjshanahan/

Relational Care custom GPT: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-6984b31aadb08191a86b25d8a40c1afd-tech-for-relational-care

Listen to more interviews and watch free AI in care tutorials: https://aiinsocialcare.com/

What does it actually take to make AI work in a care setting?

In this episode of AI in Social Care, I sit down with Kevin Humphrys, CEO of Oakland Care Group – a two-home provider that’s quietly doing some of the most thoughtful, practical AI implementation I’ve seen.

No outsourced transformation project. No shiny tools for the sake of it. Just a leadership team willing to start with principles, and adjust the plan as they go.

Here’s what stood out:

– They didn’t wait to have it all figured out. They started with 5 rules.

– Staff now build their own AI agents – including senior care staff. Not because they were “techy”, but because they saw the value.

– Care planning went from 4 hours to 20 minutes – with better oversight, not less.

– They spotted bias the hard way – and built systems to catch it next time.

– Most importantly: they’re not using AI to cut corners. They’re using it to give staff time back.

If you're in a care leadership role and feel like you're already behind on AI, you're not. But the gap will grow quickly in 2026 – and this episode shows what it looks like to start where you are, with what you’ve got.

Resources

Kevin's Gen AI Governance template: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yx6CSQe5y0bAuNWx9Ong7mOxdeZXm_U6/view?usp=drive_link

📄 Free starter resources at frankcaremarketing.com

#AIinCare #CareSector #SocialCareLeadership #CarePlanning #SocialCareTech

What happens when a care provider builds their own AI – not in a lab, but in the real world of rotas, staff sickness, and visit chaos?

In this episode of AI in Social Care, I speak with Jonathan McFarlane, founder of Oran Care and now the creator of carevisits.AI – a new solution designed to help home care services tackle one of their biggest operational headaches: coordination.

Jonathan shares his journey from music therapy and dementia care to building tech tools. Now, with a sharp focus on visit planning and routing, his team is developing AI to solve the kind of problems that only someone who’s been in the trenches would recognise.

– Why care coordination is more complex than people think

– Why the user decides how to measure success

– How to approach optimising systems (way before getting AI involved)

– Why experience in care matters more than clever code

If you’ve ever felt the pain of last-minute rota changes, weekend on-call stress, or trying to make sense of three systems that don’t talk to each other, this one’s for you.

Check out carevisits.ai

🔗 Find free resources on getting started with AI in care at frankcaremarketing.com

David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mance/

Jonathan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-mcfarlane-a9b0325a/

#SocialCare #AIinCare #HomeCare #CareTech #DigitalCare #CareCoordination #AI #FrankCareMarketing #CareVisitsAI #HealthTech #CareSector

What happens when a care provider builds their own AI – not in a lab, but in the real world of rotas, staff sickness, and visit chaos?

In this episode of AI in Social Care, I speak with Jonathan McFarlane, founder of Oran Care and now the creator of carevisits.AI – a new solution designed to help home care services tackle one of their biggest operational headaches: coordination.

Jonathan shares his journey from music therapy and dementia care to building tech tools. Now, with a sharp focus on visit planning and routing, his team is developing AI to solve the kind of problems that only someone who’s been in the trenches would recognise.

Why care coordination is more complex than people think

Why the user decides how to measure success

How to approach optimising systems (way before getting AI involved)

Why experience in care matters more than clever code

If you’ve ever felt the pain of last-minute rota changes, weekend on-call stress, or trying to make sense of three systems that don’t talk to each other, this one’s for you.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here: link below

🔗 Find free resources on getting started with AI in care at frankcaremarketing.com

#SocialCare #AIinCare #HomeCare #CareTech #DigitalCare #CareCoordination #AI #FrankCareMarketing #CareVisitsAI #HealthTech #CareSector

Everyone’s excited about AI, but few are actually getting it adopted by frontline workers.

In this episode, I’m joined by Rachel Astall, Chief Customer Officer at Beam, creators of Magic Notes — an AI tool now used by half of all social care teams in UK local authorities.

We talk about why social workers are often drowning in admin, how Magic Notes is helping to change that, and what it takes to make a tech rollout actually stick.

We cover:

🔸 How tools like Magic Notes are helping some workers stay in jobs they were about to leave

🔸 What it takes to build trust and tech habits in care teams

🔸 The role of training, templates, and culture in successful adoption

🔸 Why AI in social care is about more than just efficiency – it’s about connection, consent, and quality of care

If you're in adult social care, commissioning, or working with digital adoption in frontline services, this is an episode worth your time.