The nine successful councils chosen to share £700,000 to pilot cutting edge tech social care projects have been announced.

The councils will use the funding, from NHS Digital and the Local Government Association, to design and develop their digital innovations.

Winning projects include exoskeleton devices for carers and biometric wearable devices to people with autism and complex learning disabilities.

James Palmer, programme lead for the Social Care Programme at NHS Digital, said: 'The successful projects all showed great promise during their discovery phase, looking at a wide range of areas from data visualisations and online financial assessment tools to wearable tech and exoskeleton devices.

'These are some really exciting proposals and I am looking forward to seeing the outcomes. We will be sharing learning from the projects, with a view to these blueprints supporting other social care providers looking to innovate in the same area.'

The successful councils are Bracknell Forest Council, London Borough Havering, Isle of Wight Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Nottingham City Council, Shropshire Council, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, Sunderland City Council and Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council