Technology for health and social care in 2026
DSPT, NHS and CQC context: the IT, connectivity and security foundations care providers need now.
By the Telappliant team
Care providers run on continuity: a missed call can be a missed safeguarding concern, and a lost record can be a CQC finding. In 2026, technology for health and social care means proving cyber resilience through the Data Security and Protection Toolkit while keeping clinical and care operations running without interruption.
The regulatory backdrop
Every organisation with access to NHS patient data, and most CQC-registered adult social care providers, must complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit annually. DSPT sits alongside CQC's requirement for effective, safe systems and the ICO's expectations under UK GDPR for special category health data. Falling short on DSPT can affect NHS contracts and data-sharing agreements, not just your security posture.
Where care providers get caught out
- Shared logins on care management systems, which fail both DSPT and basic access control
- Unencrypted laptops or tablets used by domiciliary staff visiting service users
- Analogue alarm and nurse-call lines that still depend on the PSTN, which is being withdrawn
- Personal mobile devices used to photograph or message about service users
- No tested backup for rostering, care planning and medication records
Clinical and care continuity comes first
Downtime in a care setting is not an inconvenience, it is a safety issue. Call routing must fail over so on-call staff are always reachable, care records need offline access plans for connectivity outages, and any phone system change must keep emergency and safeguarding lines working throughout migration.
A practical technology baseline
- Managed IT support with monitored patching and encrypted, MDM-enrolled devices
- Multi-factor authentication on every system holding service user data
- Immutable backup of care planning, rostering and finance systems, tested regularly
- A cloud phone system with resilient failover for on-call and out-of-hours lines
- Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus certification to evidence baseline controls
- A documented incident response plan naming who calls the ICO and when
Connectivity for multi-site care groups
Care homes and clinics increasingly need reliable broadband or leased lines to support cloud-based care records, video consultations and nurse-call systems, plus a secondary connection so a single fault at one site does not take down care recording or the ability to raise an alarm.
Getting DSPT and Cyber Essentials working together
The two overlap heavily on access control, patching and incident response, so a joint audit rather than two separate exercises saves time and produces evidence that satisfies both. Most care providers we work with complete DSPT far faster once Cyber Essentials controls are already in place.
