For Care Providers and Commissioners
Whether you are at the research stage or ready to plan a pilot, we help UK care organisations make sense of the options honestly.
Care home managers, commissioners and NHS technology leads come to this page with practical questions: what is actually available, what does it cost, how does it fit with CQC regulation, and how do you run a responsible pilot? This page addresses those questions honestly and explains how we can help you find the right information and make the right connections.
Understanding the current landscape
The UK care robotics market is active but still early. Most current deployments involve companion and communication robots rather than full humanoid systems. That distinction matters for procurement planning. A commissioner who expects a walking, talking humanoid and finds a screen-based communication device is not better off for having been misled.
Devices in current UK use broadly fall into two categories. The first is AI-assisted communication companions: systems that support residents with reminders, family video calls, and social interaction. The second is more physically capable assistive devices, some of which are under evaluation for care settings in UK research contexts. Neither category replaces human carers. Both carry genuine operational and regulatory considerations that should be part of any procurement decision.
CQC regulation applies to care homes deploying these technologies. The Care Quality Commission's expectations around safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care do not stop at the boundary of technology use. A well-designed deployment involves obtaining appropriate resident and family consent, documenting the technology in care plans, training staff to use and manage it, and establishing a clear process for residents who do not wish to engage. These are not optional additions; they are the conditions under which technology can be deployed responsibly in a regulated care setting.
Before you begin
Not every resident will benefit from or want to engage with a companion robot. Consent processes must be robust, particularly where residents have dementia or reduced mental capacity. For residents who lack capacity to consent, decisions must follow the Mental Capacity Act 2005 framework, with a best-interests assessment involving relevant people. Good practice means assessing each resident individually, not rolling out technology across a whole unit on the assumption that it will suit everyone.
Frontline care staff need to understand the technology, trust it, and be confident managing it day to day. Pilots that exclude staff from the planning process, or that treat the technology as an IT project rather than a care delivery decision, often fail to achieve meaningful outcomes. Staff who feel the technology is being imposed on them will not advocate for it with residents, and their support is essential for good outcomes.
CQC expects care homes to evidence how technology is used to support, not replace, care. Before deploying, document your rationale clearly: what resident need are you addressing, what evidence informs your choice of technology, what are your consent processes, and how will you measure and review outcomes? This documentation protects both residents and the organisation if questions arise during an inspection.
A companion robot deployed in a care setting is in active use around the clock, in an environment that is demanding on hardware. Support contracts and maintenance response times are not a minor procurement detail; they are material to whether the deployment remains functional and beneficial. Ask providers specifically what happens when the device fails at 2am, who is responsible for repair, and what the typical response time is.
Define what success looks like before you start. If you are deploying companion technology to address resident loneliness, how will you measure whether it is achieving that? Use validated wellbeing measures where they exist. A pilot without a clear evaluation framework produces no evidence of whether the technology worked, which makes it difficult to justify continuation and impossible to contribute to the broader evidence base that the sector needs.
How we can help
We connect care organisations with UK providers of companion and assistive robots. We can help you understand the range of options currently available, identify providers whose technology is relevant to your setting and resident profile, and find independent information on documented UK deployments and the evidence behind them.
We do not make clinical recommendations. We do not advise on care plans or individual residents. We are not a regulated advisory or clinical service. Our role is to provide honest market information and make introductions to providers who can speak to your specific situation. Any decision to deploy technology in a care setting remains with the care organisation, and should involve appropriate clinical and regulatory expertise.
For care organisations at an early stage of research, our guides provide a structured starting point. For organisations that are ready to explore specific options, an enquiry to us is the right next step.
Make an enquiry
Send a brief outline of your setting and what you are trying to achieve to hello@humanoidrobotcare.co.uk. It helps to include the type of care setting, the approximate number of residents, and whether you are at a research, evaluation, or active planning stage.
We respond to all genuine provider enquiries personally. We do not pass your details to providers without asking you first, and we do not pass details to providers with whom we do not have an existing relationship. You will not receive unsolicited commercial contact as a result of writing to us.
Send a provider enquiry