Created in partnership with Five on a Bike
Published: 11 February 2026
At the Care Innovation Summit 2025, one the UK’s leading care conferences, Ruth Brown, newly appointed Managing Director of Home Instead UK, spoke live from the Care Innovators Studio, run by Five on a Bike. She challenged a common assumption about dementia care innovation – innovation in social care does not have to mean artificial intelligence, robotics or major system change. Often, it is the smallest, most practical adjustments that create the biggest impact for clients and care professionals.
Redefining Care Innovation
Home Instead operates 265 locations across the UK and supports around 18,000 clients in their own homes. As a large domiciliary provider, the organisation sees how daily processes succeed and where they need to evolve.
The interview addressed that when you use the word innovation, people get a bit scared, it sounds like a huge business change or service change but innovation can come in the smallest of things that you do for your clients or your employees. Rather than focusing on headline-grabbing technology, Ruth too focused on practical changes that improve lived experience, specifically in dementia care which is increasingly requiring more complex and efficient care.
Bringing Training to Life: Inside ‘Betty’s Flat’
One of Home Instead’s most significant recent developments is a revamp of its Care Professional training programme. Central to this is the creation of “Betty’s Flat” – a fully immersive training environment built within one of their offices.
Betty’s Flat replicates a client’s home. It allows Care Professionals to step into realistic dementia scenarios before entering a real client’s property.
Training in a live client environment is neither practical nor appropriate. By recreating that setting internally, Home Instead enables staff to build confidence in a safe space and ensure the highest possible quality of care for those living with dementia.
The approach also integrates lived experience. The organisation actively involves people living with dementia and family members in discussions with Care Professionals, strengthening empathy and understanding and further driving a person-centred approach that prioritises the patient’s experience above all else.
For social care leaders exploring workforce development strategies at this year’s care innovation summit, this message highlights the importance of realistic, experience-based training that transforms confidence and quality without relying on complex, expensive and potentially disruptive technology.
Educating Families Through ‘Home Truths’
Innovation at Home Instead extends beyond internal training. The organisation has also launched a YouTube channel called Home Truths, designed to support families caring for a loved one with dementia. As Ruth noted her personal experience as a family care, supporting this community particularly relevant to her.
Family carers face many challenges – lacking formal training, finances and the facilities for large or expensive innovations. The interview addresses that this innovation isn’t about tech, it’s about providing education and support to those caring at home. To achieve this, the channel provided accessible, practical and actionable advice across many areas that often become challenging during dementia progressions.
To combat common challenges, Ruth addressed how simple adjustments can make a measurable difference:
- Use plain plates rather than patterned ones to reduce visual confusion
- Offer clear, concrete suggestions rather than open-ended choices
- Provide simple foods that can be picked up easily
- Allow ample time to eat without rushing
Ruth also acknowledged that tastes change. Sometimes the preferred meal may be fish and chips from the local takeaway or a bacon sandwich. Flexibility matters to ensure a continued quality of care and dignity for those living with dementia.
How Personal Experience Shapes Professional Perspective
As Ruth’s is not only a senior leader, but also as a family carer – her insights provide depth that only personal experience can offer.
Caring for her mother, who has a vascular dementia diagnosis, has shaped her perspective on early intervention and support. She highlights that it’s important to ask for help as families often delay seeking support due to many challenges from guilt and pride to fear and financial concerns – leaving many family carers waiting until a crisis point forces action.
At the Care Innovation Summit, Ruth and York urged families and professionals to drive earlier conversations and preventative support that reduces the likelihood of crisis, further emphasising that we should not wait for it to get that far, and instead put provision in place so that it can be prevented.
She acknowledged how difficult these conversations can be, as families often find the topics provoke guilt, fear and even embarrassment. For delegates at the conference, the discussion highlighted a broader societal issue and the need to normalise conversations about ageing, cognitive decline and mortality, and asking for support.
Care at Home Is Not a Default Alternative
Another key message from Ruth centred on choice, as although care homes play an essential role in the social care sector, they are not the only pathway following a dementia diagnosis. Providing options to those caring for people living with dementia, and for the patient’s themselves is important to uphold quality of care and dignity. Ruth explains it’s not over just because someone’s got a diagnosis of dementia and care homes aren’t a default, there are options to keep people at home.
Through live-in care and structured domiciliary support, Home Instead enables many clients to remain in familiar surroundings for as long as possible. These options in the delivery of dementia care show that flexibility in care models is vital and a responsive system offers families and patients more options and more support.
A Broader View of Innovation
The Care Innovation Summit 2025 brought together sector experts, providers and policymakers to examine the future of care. Ruth Brown’s contribution offered an important counterbalance to technology-driven narratives.
True care innovation, she argued, lies in practical training environments, honest family conversations, accessible education and early support. It lies in empowering Care Professionals to handle real-life scenarios with confidence. It lies in helping families let go of guilt and seek support sooner.
Watch the full interview on YouTube
For a day filled with more insights and innovations that drive change in the care sector, book your ticket to Care Innovation Summit 2026 today.
