The majority of adult social care leaders want to accelerate their use of technology enabled care (TEC), but persistent gaps in workforce confidence and data use are holding back progress, according to new research.

The third annual study by PA Consulting and the TEC Services Association (TSA) found that 78% of senior leaders want to speed up their TEC programmes, and 96% say their organisation would rethink how care is delivered if TEC could enable prevention.

However, only 16% of leaders say their workforce has a strong understanding of TEC's benefits, while 77% cite a lack of data integration with core systems as a major barrier. A further 70% say staff struggle to use TEC insights in day-to-day decision making.

The findings come as local authorities spent £29.4bn on adult social care last year — £2.3bn more than the previous year — with directors anticipating a further £623m overspend in the year ahead.

One in four leaders identified long-term funding uncertainty as the single biggest barrier to achieving their TEC ambitions.

Alyson Scurfield, chief executive, TSA said: ‘Across adult social care, we are seeing growing recognition of the role technology enabled care can play in helping people live independently for longer and supporting services to respond to rising demand.

‘What this research highlights clearly is the importance of confidence and capability across the workforce. Technology only delivers real value when people feel able to use it, understand the insight it generates, and apply that insight in everyday decision making.

‘By sharing learning across the sector and building that confidence, we can scale approaches that improve outcomes for people while helping services deliver more proactive and preventative support.’