Care Tech Change Officer

Barking and Dagenham is changing how it supports people with social care by using cutting-edge technology such as sensors, medication reminders, and AI-powered tools to help people stay independent at home. Care City CIC is the council’s change partner on this work. This means we help to make sure that residents using the technology have a good experience with it and that care workers understand how to help people make the best use of these technologies to live the life they want to.

We are looking for someone at the start of their career to join this programme of work. You will spend your time talking to people: residents and families in Barking and Dagenham, social care staff, care providers, health and voluntary and community organisations. You will help them understand what care technology can do, find out what is working and what is not and feed that back so we can fix it. You’ll also help us creatively think up approaches to how technology can be used, and you’ll be curious about new technologies and ways of working that we might be able to test to improve people’s lives.

You do not need a degree. You do not have to have worked in health or social care, but you do need to care about the people and communities you’ll be working alongside. You might have demonstrated that through volunteering or helping out in your community, or in some other way. A keen interest in technology and how it can help people is a must. You need to be curious, good with people and interested in how your local area works.

This role is designed to be an entry point into a career in change and improvement work. You’ll get to work alongside passionate people who want to make a difference in health and social care for our residents.

About Care City

We are a not-for-profit community interest company based in Barking and Dagenham. We work on health and care innovation with the NHS, councils, care providers and communities across east London and beyond. We are passionate about creating a future where radically better health and care are possible. We are a team of 13, so you will not be a small cog in a big machine. You will see how the whole organisation works, and your contribution will be visible.

This role is part of our commitment to the borough and the place we call home. We think the people who understand Barking and Dagenham best are the people who live here, and we want that knowledge inside our team.

The work

You will split your time mainly across two programmes (and also support other Care City projects which require change support):

Care technology in Barking and Dagenham (main focus). The council is growing a service that puts technology into people’s homes to support their care. Our job is to help it work: getting social care teams to use it well, making sure the technology actually suits the people receiving it and that their experience is good, testing and implementing creative and new ways of using technology to help people live the life they want to and building the evidence for what works.

CarePort (secondary focus). Care City runs a remote monitoring programme with care providers, using technology to spot when someone’s health is changing before it becomes a crisis. Winter is the busiest and hardest time for this work, so your first few months will be hands-on and fast-moving in helping us to make this work a success for residents.

What you will do

Talk to people and help us understand and act on what they tell you

• Speak with residents, families and staff using care technology, and find out honestly what is and is not working for them
• Help run engagement sessions where people can shape the service rather than just receive it
• Visit care providers involved in CarePort and build relationships with the staff using it day to day
• Write up what you hear so the programme team can act on it
• Help us develop new ideas and approaches to making the experience for residents and staff on these projects as good as possible

Help people use the technology well

• Get to know the full catalogue of care technology, what each device does and who it suits
• Support social care teams to understand it and know when to make a referral
• Help us to create and co-deliver training sessions alongside a senior colleague,  and take on more of the delivery as your confidence grows
• Be a friendly, reliable point of contact when someone has a question

Make the message land

• Create engaging materials: short videos, one-page guides, social posts, case studies working with our comms director
• Help us think of and use different platforms or tools we may not be using already. If you are better at TikTok than PowerPoint, we want that! 
• Bring ideas about how to reach people we are currently missing – the more creative the better

Support the digital champions

• Be the day-to-day contact for a group of digital champions supporting the programme in Barking and Dagenham
• Coordinate their activity, keep them informed and make sure they have what they need

Try things

• Some ideas will work and some will not. We will back you to test things and we will not blame you when something falls flat. 
• We know that innovation requires us to be bold and brave in trying new ways of doing things and we welcome people who challenge and bring new thoughts and ideas to the table

Who this is for

This role is designed for someone near the start of their working life or with a couple of years’ experience. It would suit you if you have recently finished college, are looking for your first or second job, or want to move into health and care without going back into education first.

We are especially keen to hear from people who live in or grew up in Barking and Dagenham. Knowing the borough, its neighbourhoods and its communities is a genuine advantage in this job.

You will do well here if you:

• Enjoy talking to people and can build trust quickly
• Are comfortable with technology and can pick up a new device or app without much hand-holding
• Enjoy using AI and finding ways of helping to make the most of these tools in your work
• Can explain something clearly to someone who finds it confusing
• Are organised enough to follow through on what you said you would do
• Are willing to say when something is not working

You have done something, somewhere, that shows you can make things happen. That could be anything. Organising an event. Setting up a group chat that turned into something real. Running a society at college. Helping in a family business. Caring for a relative. Volunteering. Tell us about it.

How to apply

In no more than one page please tell us why you think you are the right person for this role AND tell us how this role could help you in your career?

OR if you’d prefer, send us a video no longer than two minutes, covering the same questions.

Email this to us at: careers@carecity.org

Meet the team

Interested to know who you could be working with? We are a diverse bunch with a variety of experiences and career backgrounds (and hobbies!). Meet us here.