The Residential & Home Care Show 2022: Editor’s report

Everybody I spoke to at the Residential & Home Care Show was happy to see the show return to ExCeL London after a COVID-enforced three-year break. For my part, having been editor of The Care Home Environment for only a few short months, the show was the perfect opportunity to put faces to names and to chat with people from across the social care space – from tech companies and catering specialists to fellow magazine editors and social care luminaries.

Lots of tech

The first thing that struck me (other than just how big a venue ExCel is) was how many tech companies were present at the show. I began the day by sitting in on a talk given by Jonathan Papworth, founder of Person Centred Software, who, in a spirited and informative presentation, focused on a familiar theme – that of the grand vision of joined-up health and social care and the key role that the implementation of new digital technology and systems have to play in realising that vision. Communicating information is the key here, and Jonathan emphasised that this was easier said than done, given the differences in priorities and language between health and social care. Information which might be of critical importance in a social care environment - a resident’s dietary requirements, for example - might be of little or no interest or value to a GP or nurse. The challenge lies in creating systems that recognise both sets of values.