Cyber security challenges in Adult Social Care

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has consistently highlighted the increasing risks and challenges surrounding data security across the UK. In ASC, these risks are particularly pressing: providers in this sector regularly handle highly sensitive information - special category data - on behalf of vulnerable individuals, and data security is harder to manage due to the diverse nature of the sector, with a high proportion of small and micro providers. Many organisations operate with limited budgets, and for a significant number, digitisation is still a work in progress.

Adding to the challenge, many staff across the sector report low levels of digital skills and confidence. This creates a perfect storm where sensitive data is handled daily, but the systems, training, and support to protect it are not always in place.

At The PSC, we've been working alongside the Digital Care Hub to address these challenges. Formerly Digital Social Care, the Digital Care Hub is an independent consortium led by social care providers that offers practical advice and support to the adult social care sector on technology, data protection, and cyber security.

The need for a policy tool: research insights

To better understand the landscape, in November and December 2024, The PSC and the Digital Care Hub undertook research - including a survey with 775 responses and 20 in-depth interviews. Some of the key findings were eye-opening:

• Around 50% of ASC providers - mostly smaller and home care services - currently allow BYOD practices, largely driven by cost constraints.
• More than 70% of managers consider BYOD to be low risk. However, in interviews, many failed to correctly identify situations that were, in fact, data breaches.
• Of the organisations allowing BYOD, only 50% had an actual policy in place - and even where policies existed, they often weren’t being followed.

Based on these findings, one of the key recommendations was to create a tool that helps ASC providers develop tailored data security policies - especially around BYOD. You can read the full research and results on the Digital Care Hub website. 

Designing a BYOD policy builder tool

To ensure that the tool will meet the needs of providers, we have utilised user-centred design methodology in every stage of the process. This includes: conducting initial interviews to understand user needs; developing initial prototype based on these needs; and testing this with users and iterated based on feedback, developing 10+ iterations throughout the design process.

The tool will be completely free to use and will be the first of 11 planned data and digital policy builders tailored specifically for the adult social care sector. It is designed to:

• Provide essential context around common risks
• Offer practical mitigation strategies
• Help services easily develop policies that reflect how they actually work in the real world.

We're excited to be showcasing the tool for the first time publicly at the Care Show on the 8th October 2025, before officially launching it in the weeks following.

Make sure to follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with when the tool becomes live - and if you have a problem that a digital tool could help solve and need help with the design, get in touch at hello@thepsc.co.uk.