A Greater Manchester nurse has secured £75,000 in funding from Innovate UK to develop technology designed to identify preventable illness among social care workers before it affects staff retention and care quality.
Emma-Louise Fusari, founder of In-House Health Limited, is among 61 recipients of this year’s Innovate UK Women in Innovation awards, which also provide 12 months of business support, training and networking opportunities.
The announcement marks the 10th anniversary of the programme, with Innovate UK receiving a record 1,590 applications and selecting 100 women entrepreneurs from across the UK.
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In-House Health has developed a workforce health platform for the private social care sector, combining clinical expertise with more than 100 health, culture and operational indicators. The company said the platform also includes women’s health data, which it says is often absent from workplace health tools, and is designed to support Care Quality Commission compliance.
The business plans to expand the platform’s predictive capabilities to identify long-term health risks and enable earlier intervention, with the ambition of helping one million UK employees stay healthy and in work.
Fusari, who has worked as a nurse for 24 years in chronic disease management and public health promotion, founded the business after seeing colleagues and patients develop preventable illness linked to workplace conditions.
She said:
“Every year as a nurse, I see people become unwell because of things that are entirely preventable. Social care is losing good people every day, not because they don’t care, but because nobody is measuring the impact the working environment is having on their health and wellbeing. Low staffing levels, more complex people to care for, and financial stress are not sustainable long term. This funding lets me build the technology that catches those risks early, before they cost a carer their long-term health, a provider their employees, or people the care they deserve.”
According to Skills for Care, England’s social care sector currently has around 96,000 vacancies, while the workforce is projected to require an additional 410,000 posts by 2040 to meet demand from an ageing population. Annual staff turnover stands at 23.6%.
Emily Nott, Head of Inclusive Innovation at Innovate UK, added:
“Huge congratulations to everyone recognised in this year’s Women in Innovation Awards. Reaching the 10th anniversary of the programme with record levels of engagement demonstrates the extraordinary talent, unstoppable ambition, and groundbreaking innovation being developed by women across the UK. We are proud to support these inspiring founders as they navigate the critical growth stages ahead.”
Since launching in 2016, the Women in Innovation Awards have invested more than £15m in 260 women-led businesses. The 2025/26 cohort includes founders from every nation and region of the UK.
