News & Blog
New Digital Tool to Support Unpaid Carers Launches Across West Yorkshire
Share2Care, a new digital solution that strengthens the connection between unpaid carers and NHS professionals, has been launched by our Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR) partners in West Yorkshire.
Developed in collaboration with Care Networx and commissioned by the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), Share2Care provides unpaid carers with a secure platform to coordinate caring responsibilities, collaborate with family and friends, and create digital contingency plans that can be shared with healthcare professionals.
The programme has the potential to support up to 250,000 unpaid carers across West Yorkshire and could therefore serve as a model for other regions seeking to strengthen support for carers and improve connections between health and social care services.
This represents an important step forward in recognising and supporting the vital role of unpaid carers, by ensuring that crucial information can be made available across health and care settings, supporting informed decision-making and the continuity of care.
Supporting Better Information Sharing
Every day, unpaid carers provide essential support to family members, friends and loved ones, often coordinating complex care arrangements behind the scenes. Yet much of that information has traditionally remained outside formal health and care records.
Through Share2Care, carers can create structured contingency plans that outline what should happen if they are suddenly unable to provide care. The new solution means that care plans are integrated with NHS systems, enabling authorised healthcare professionals to identify plans and access relevant information when required.
For the YHCR, this programme reflects our shared ambition to ensure that important information follows the individual across care settings and that the contributions of unpaid carers are better recognised within the wider health and care ecosystem.
Empowering Carers Through Digital Innovation
The Share2Care platform provides practical tools that help carers manage day-to-day responsibilities. Through a trusted “circle of care”, users can coordinate support with family members, friends and others involved in caring. They can also share updates, communicate securely and manage administrative tasks from a single platform.
Alexis Twigg, Founder of Care Networx, said: “Care has always happened in the community, led by families and unpaid carers, but the system has never truly seen it.
Share2Care changes that by enabling carers to record and share information in a way that can support better decisions across the health and care system.”
This supports the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to improve contingency planning for unpaid carers, helping ensure more carers can benefit from structured planning conversations and that their plans become accessible to healthcare professionals when needed.
Strengthening Integrated Care Across Yorkshire and Humber
As one of the UK’s largest shared care record programmes, the YHCR, powered by Interweave, is focused on enabling secure and appropriate information sharing across organisations to support safer, more coordinated care.
By helping carers record information digitally and making key contingency arrangements, Share2Care demonstrates how digital innovation can bridge the gap between community-based care and formal healthcare services.
Kulvant Sandhu, Senior Programme Manager for Unpaid Carers at NHS West Yorkshire ICB, said: “We are delighted to have commissioned Share2Care, an innovative digital solution that helps carers coordinate care more effectively by ensuring important information is readily available, including carer identification and emergency contingency arrangements.
By supporting carers in their day-to-day role, it offers greater peace of mind and reassurance that arrangements are in place when they are needed most.”
To learn more about Share2Care in West Yorkshire and download the app, please visit the Care Networx website.