Guide
Most conversation about care robots focuses on care homes, but a great deal of care in the UK happens in people's own homes. This guide looks honestly at what robot and companion technology can and cannot do in a domiciliary setting, and how it fits alongside human home care rather than replacing it.
Home care, sometimes called domiciliary care, is the support delivered to people in their own homes so they can live as independently as possible. It is where the largest share of UK adult social care actually takes place. As families and providers look at technology to help stretch limited care capacity, a common question is whether robots have a role in the home as well as in the care home. The honest answer is that they have a modest, supporting role, and it is important to be clear about what that role is.
It is worth being precise about the difference, because the technology that suits one does not automatically suit the other. In a care home there are staff on site around the clock, and any device is one part of a supervised environment. In a person's own home, the person is often alone for long periods between care visits, and there is no one nearby to step in if something goes wrong. That changes what a device needs to do and how much can reasonably be asked of it.
It also changes the emotional picture. A person living at home may value the technology precisely because it helps them stay in a home they love, close to their own routines and memories. That is a genuine benefit, but it also raises the stakes: a device that gives false reassurance in a home setting can leave a vulnerable person without the human contact and checks they actually need.
The technology realistically available for home use in the UK is companion and monitoring technology rather than a mobile humanoid robot that carries out physical tasks. It tends to cluster around a few genuinely useful functions.
None of this is the same as a carer. The technology does not provide personal care, and it does not remove the need for the human visits that keep a person safe and well.
In a home setting the gap between what a device does and what a person needs can be dangerous if it is not understood. Companion and monitoring technology does not wash or dress a person, does not help them move safely, does not prepare and serve a meal, and does not administer medication. It cannot make a clinical judgement about a change in someone's condition. A prompt to take a tablet is not the same as a carer confirming it was taken.
The risk to guard against is substitution by stealth: a device introduced to help with isolation quietly becoming the reason care visits are reduced. Technology can complement a care package. It should not be used to justify cutting the human support a person has been assessed as needing.
Before a family funds technology privately, it is worth checking what statutory support is available. In England, a person with possible care and support needs can ask their local council for a care needs assessment under the Care Act, and technology that supports independence at home may be considered as part of a resulting care and support plan. Councils and the NHS have supported assistive technology and telecare where it helps someone stay safely at home, though this is assessed case by case and is not automatic.
This is not medical or care advice. Decisions about someone's care should involve the person themselves, their family, and qualified professionals such as a social worker or occupational therapist, who can look at the whole picture rather than a single device.
A device in a private home can collect a lot: voice, routines, video, and in some cases location or movement data. Because this is the person's home, privacy expectations are high and the data can be sensitive. Families should understand what a device records, where that data is stored, who can access it, and whether recordings can be turned off. Under UK data protection law, information about a person's health or care needs carries extra protection, and the person should where possible understand and agree to what is being collected about them.
Our guide to care robot data protection and privacy in the UK covers this in more depth.
If you are a home care provider, a commissioner or a family weighing up companion or assistive technology for someone living at home, write to us at hello@humanoidrobotcare.co.uk. We are an independent information service rather than a vendor, so our aim is to help you understand what the technology realistically does and to point you toward relevant UK providers where that is useful. Our For Providers page explains the enquiry route for organisations at the research or planning stage.
Common questions
No. The technology available for use in a person's own home in the UK is companion and monitoring technology, not a robot that can carry out personal care. It does not wash, dress, help someone move safely, prepare a meal or administer medication. It can prompt, remind, connect a person to family by video, and in some cases raise an alert. It should be seen as something that can support a home care package and reduce isolation between visits, not something that removes the need for a human carer.
Companion and monitoring devices are generally low-risk in physical terms because they do not handle the person, but there are real considerations. These include whether the person understands and agrees to the device, what data it collects and who can see it, whether it could create a false sense of safety that reduces human contact, and whether the person can use it comfortably. A home care robot should be introduced with consent, with clear expectations about what it does, and never as a substitute for the checks a person genuinely needs.