Research project
SENSITISE - (optimiSing tEchNology’S contrIbuTIon to Social carE)
- Start date: 1 August 2025
- End date: 1 December 2028
- Funder: National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
- Value: £490,000
- Partners and collaborators: National Care Forum, Skills for Care, London School of Economics, Digital Care Hub
- Primary investigator: Professor Carl Thompson
- Co-investigators: Professor Karen Spilsbury, Dr David Meads, Daniel Hind, Dr John O'Dwyer
- External co-investigators: Davina Figgett; Rob Moriarty; Dr Michela Tinelli; Prof. Adam Gordon.
Description
SENSITISE (optimiSing tEchNology’s contrIbuTIon to Social carE) is a University of Leeds–led research project that aims to improve how technology is designed, commissioned and used in adult social care.
While digital and assistive technologies are often promoted as solutions to workforce pressures and rising demand, their adoption and impact in social care remain uneven. One key reason is a lack of robust evidence on what different stakeholders actually value in technology, and the trade-offs they are willing to make. SENSITISE addresses this gap by systematically capturing and analysing the preferences of people who use, deliver, manage, commission and develop social care technologies.
The project applies established preference-elicitation methods, including discrete choice experiments, alongside qualitative research to identify which features of technology matter most across different care settings and stakeholder groups.
The research programme begins with evidence synthesis and in-depth engagement with older people, family carers, care workers, managers, commissioners and technology developers. These insights are used to develop realistic and accessible preference surveys that reflect real-world decisions about technology adoption. Large-scale data collection then allows the team to estimate the relative importance of different technology attributes and explore variation in preferences between groups.
A central output of SENSITISE is a free, open-access database of social care technology preferences. This resource is designed to support better decision-making by commissioners and providers, inform technology development, and strengthen the evidence base for policy.
The project also produces practice-focused briefings, academic publications and knowledge-sharing events. SENSITISE is delivered by an interdisciplinary team at the University of Leeds, working in partnership with national social care organisations including the National Care Forum, Skills for Care, the Digital Care Hub and NICHE-Leeds. The project is funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research.
Impact
We will be developing the first national database of preferences (utilities) for technology in social care. The database will be freely available and accompanied by tools to enable decision makers to make more informed purchasing, commissioning and design choices.