UK start-up OnCare raises £550,000 to tackle social care with tech

OnCare has raised over half a million pounds in its efforts to transform social care in the United Kingdom.

The British healthcare start-up offers a range of digital tools for care workers designed to free up more time to spend with patients.

The money will be used to drive sales efforts and product development.

OnCare was founded in 2017 as part of a collaboration between Aviva and technology incubator, Founders Factory.

The software is pitched as a replacement to paper-based processes as part of efforts to make social care easier, more transparent and more cost-effective.

OnCare offers an interface through which care workers can upload information about their clients and use it to coordinate their care.

Users can receive individual care plans and reports from other care workers, and enter details of the care they provided clients during their visit.

Meanwhile, family members can access a digital copy of their relatives’ care records and receive updates via text message.

Alistair Cohen, CEO of OnCare, told Digital Health News the company had working agreements with 25 domiciliary care agencies whose workers used the app on a daily basis.

“Our customers provide a range of different types of care services – some elderly care, some palliative, some live-in care, and some support for people with learning disabilities (such as Westminster Society),” said Cohen.

“We don’t yet tend to recommend that care homes use our software, as its designed for a domiciliary care setting, but we’ll be developing a care home version of the product this year or early next.”

He added that the company’s next step was to get its software “into the hands of as many care providers as could benefit from it”.

The UK currently spends some £20bn on the social care sector every year.

Care organisations face increasing pressure to find ways of tackling the country’s ageing population through new digital tools.

NHS boards in Scotland are currently engaged in efforts to link up primary, secondary and social care data to promote better joined-up care in the country’s most remote regions.