What we do

We work with organisations across multiple sectors including health and social care, education, and employment. We also provide Brain in Hand directly to end users.

Embedded into services, Brain in Hand can help stretched teams to support more individuals more effectively and reduce traditional support costs.

Our system has been commissioned by over 20% of English councils to support hundreds of service users. In the recent Government autism self-assessment exercise, Brain in Hand was the technological innovation most commonly named by local authorities for supporting independence. We’re also a top-rated support system for autistic people by independent health tech reviewer ORCHA.  

Our digital transformation experts help organisations identify the most effective delivery model and referral pathways for their services, complementing existing structures without being an extra burden on resources.

For support in education, Brain in Hand is used mostly by autistic students and students with mental health difficulties. There are thousands of students using the system, with at least one in almost every university in the UK; it helps to ease the transition to university life so that everyone can reach their academic potential. 

Our mission

At Brain in Hand we aim to transform the lives of people with conditions such as autism, mental health issues, and learning disabilities to enable them to achieve their goals, be more confident, and live more independently. In doing this we will demonstrate to those who provide support, including in health and social care and education, that Brain in Hand is a better way of supporting people and will reduce support costs.

Our vision

We strive to develop the best technology to improve the independence of vulnerable people at all stages in their life. We see a future that puts people in control of their own lives, accessing professional support only when they need it – a future which enables support to become much more effective and organisations to spread their limited resources further.

Research and Evidence

Brain in Hand has been designed to improve outcomes and save money. Since its launch, we have engaged with researchers, commissioners, end users, and the academic community to understand the impact it makes and its acceptability to users. To view our research papers and collaborative reports simply scroll to the Links & Documents section below.

Research on digital support systems in health, education, and social care is still in the early stages. The evidence base is growing, but there is much that is not known and, in many regards, traditional research methods are not suitable.

Mindful of these challenges, there are three principles that inform research and development at Brain in Hand:

1. Make the most of existing published research to inform product development
2. Be nimble: make the most of every opportunity to gather data and get insight on how Brain in Hand is working
3. Be open to collaboration with partner organisations and academic institutions.

Our research programme is informed by the NICE Evidence standard framework for digital health. We have strong evidence for Tier 2 of the standard and are working towards Tier 3a.

We have documented our thinking about the mechanisms behind Brain in Hand in the white paper ‘How Brain in Hand Works’. Our understanding of how Brain in Hand works is constantly evolving, so we want and expect this document to change in light of new insights and feedback from end users, funders, and researchers.

Studies and collaborations

At Brain in Hand we respect and value research and are committed to using evidence to improve the product for our end users and clients.

We have multiple exciting academic collaborations currently underway and have undertaken and supported invaluable studies into how our system works and how it can be made as effective as possible.

Information about this work can be downloaded below.