Time saved without relief? Where digitalisation stands in European care and social services

The pressure on care and social services continues to grow. The demand for high-quality, person-centred support is increasing, while staff shortages, administrative requirements and more complex needs place additional strain on the workforce. At the same time, digitalisation is becoming part of everyday work. Its role is to simplify manual processes, reduce repetitive tasks and free up time for care and support.

Digital processes alone, however, do not automatically create noticeable relief. Time saved is often immediately taken up by other responsibilities. The Trend Study Care & Social Affairs 2026 examines how professionals use digital solutions, where they already make a difference and what needs to change for digital progress to improve working conditions and the quality of care.

For the study, independent market research institute Civey surveyed 3,525 care and social services professionals across seven European countries.

High workload remains the norm

Across Europe, 76.6% of respondents describe their daily workload as high or very high. At the same time, 70.5% say their teams frequently operate at or close to full capacity.

Interruptions add to the pressure: 76.9% of professionals experience at least three interruptions during a typical working day. The results show how little capacity many teams have to absorb additional tasks or respond to unexpected demands.

Documentation takes up a significant part of the working day 

Documentation and administrative tasks remain a major demand on professionals’ time. Across the seven countries, 84.6% spend more than 30 minutes on administrative tasks each day. For 43.7%, the figure exceeds one hour, while 14.1% spend more than 90 minutes.

Documentation is an essential part of safe and accountable care. The challenge is to organize these processes in a way that maintains quality while reducing avoidable administrative effort.

Digital solutions are established, but their use remains uneven 

Digital tools are already widely used across care and social services. 61.3% of respondents work with documentation software, while 49.3% use digital workforce planning and rostering. Mobile applications are used by 49.2%, and 30% already work with AI-supported systems.

Overall, 60.3% use digital solutions often or very often in their daily work. Digitalisation is therefore firmly established, but important applications are still not available to all professionals.

Digital systems improve quality and safety

The impact of digital solutions extends beyond time savings. 67% of respondents report an improvement in documentation quality, while 62.4% experience more structured handovers. A further 58.9% say digital systems help reduce errors.

These results show that digital solutions already support essential parts of care delivery. Their value lies not only in making processes faster, but also in making information more reliable and workflows more consistent.

Time saved is quickly absorbed by other tasks

Digital solutions create additional capacity, but this rarely remains available for long. 80.6% of respondents report that the time saved is immediately taken up by other tasks.

Professionals use the additional time in different ways: 42.3% invest it in better documentation, while 41.5% spend more time with the people they support. The time gained therefore contributes to the quality of existing work, but does not automatically reduce the overall workload.

 AI-supported systems are already part of daily work

Almost one in three respondents already works with AI-supported systems. At the same time, 70.5% believe that digital solutions will become indispensable for delivering high-quality care and support in the future.

Across Europe, demand is highest for intelligent digital assistants that support less experienced staff. Documentation, access to relevant information at the right time and task prioritisation also rank among the leading areas of need.

 Conclusion: Turning time savings into real relief 

The study shows that digital solutions are already saving time and improving quality and safety across European care and social services. Documentation software, mobile applications, workforce planning and AI-supported systems have become part of everyday work. Yet the capacity they create is often immediately absorbed by other tasks.

What is needed now is not simply more digitalisation. Organisations need connected solutions that work across different settings and support professionals wherever care and support take place. Mobile applications and intelligent assistants can simplify administrative tasks, provide relevant information and make complex workflows easier to manage.

Only then can digitalisation deliver what care and social services urgently need: sustainable relief for professionals and more time for the people who depend on their support.