TSA’s CEO Alyson Scurfield awarded OBE in King’s Birthday Honours

1​5 June 2026

We are incredibly proud to share that Alyson Scurfield, CEO of TSA, has been awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List for services to Technology Enabled Care.

For everyone at TSA, Alyson’s honour is a moment of pride, and across the wider technology enabled care sector, it reflects years of work to bring TEC into conversations where it was too often missing.

Since joining TSA as Chief Executive in 2013, Alyson has worked with energy, determination and deep personal commitment to help technology enabled care become part of serious national conversations across health, housing and social care.

This is a very personal honour for Alyson, and one we know she will receive with great humility. It is also recognition for the wider TEC sector, for TSA’s members, partners, staff team and the many organisations across the UK working every day to help people live safely, independently and well in the place they call home.

Alyson’s commitment to technology enabled care is also deeply personal. She has spoken openly in the past about caring for her dad, who had Parkinson’s and mixed vascular dementia before he passed away in 2021. With family support, carers and the right technology around him, he was able to live at home for seven happy, ordinary years. That experience gave Alyson a very personal understanding of what TEC can mean for someone and their family, from medication reminders and favourite songs on a tablet, to blood pressure monitoring, falls detection and support from TEC responders as needs changed.

It also shaped her belief that TEC should reach people earlier, before a crisis point, and that more people should be able to access the right support in the place they call home. Alyson has often reflected that when her dad first began showing signs of dementia, TEC was not mentioned at his GP appointment, even though simple technology could have helped at that early stage. That experience continues to sit behind her work to build stronger links between TEC, social care, primary care, community services, housing and the wider health system.

Under Alyson’s leadership, TSA has grown from a traditional membership association into a national advisory body for technology enabled care, representing more than 350 organisations across local government, housing, care, the NHS and technology supply. She has helped shape a more collaborative sector, with a stronger focus on people’s lives and a better understanding of where TEC can make a practical difference.

Her work has also helped to strengthen safety, quality and assurance across the sector. In 2017, Alyson established the UKAS accredited Quality Standards Framework, created to address the absence of formal regulation or legislation around TEC safety. Today, 87% of people using TEC are supported by QSF certified providers, with the framework auditing TEC providers against 200 standards.

Alyson has also played a leading role in national work around the digital phone switchover. Following the deaths of two TEC users after their landlines were switched to digital, she helped build stronger partnerships between telecoms and TEC organisations to support safe digital migration. That work has helped inform the Government’s Telecare National Action Plan and continues to shape how the sector protects people through one of the most significant infrastructure changes affecting TEC services.

Alongside this, Alyson has championed the role of TEC in prevention, community based care and workforce development. She led the launch of the Virtual Home, a lifelike digital learning environment designed to improve understanding and confidence around TEC. More than 9,000 care staff have now used the Virtual Home, with 95% saying they feel more confident prescribing TEC as a result.

She has also strengthened TEC commissioning across health and care, including TSA’s work with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services on a free blueprint to help councils scale digital preventative services. That blueprint has now been downloaded by more than 700 council staff.

Speaking about the honour, Alyson said:

“I am overwhelmed to receive this honour for services to TEC. I love this sector and believe passionately in the impact it has. Every single day TEC organisations cut pressure on the NHS, they strengthen community based care and ensure millions of people live well in their own homes.

“This honour is recognition of the brilliant TSA team who have supported me so much, and crucially, it’s acknowledgement of our talented, highly innovative TEC sector. Their dedication to improving people’s lives never ceases to amaze me.

“I will use this OBE to continue banging the drum for technology enabled care and the vital role it can and must play in the future of health and care, supporting the government’s 10 Year Health Plan and its three strategic shifts.”

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chair of TSA and CEO of Care England, said:

“I am delighted that Alyson has been honoured by the King with the award of an OBE. This is recognition for the outstanding leadership that Alyson has offered to TSA and the technology enabled care sector, and it is also an indicator of the importance of her work at a time of significant health and social care reform.”

Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE, Associate Director of Think Local Act Personal, also paid tribute to Alyson’s leadership and her commitment to keeping people at the heart of technology enabled care:

“I am absolutely delighted that Alyson Scurfield has been awarded an OBE. She has always understood that TEC is about people. It is about enabling people to live the lives they choose, with dignity, independence, connection, meaning and purpose.

“Her work has helped shift the conversation from devices and systems to real lives and real outcomes. She has consistently championed the idea that technology must sit alongside care, relationships and humanity, helping people to stay connected, safe, included and in control.

“This honour recognises Alyson’s personal contribution and the importance of putting people and their lives at the very heart of technology enabled care.”

Alongside her role at TSA, Alyson chairs Age UK North Tyneside. Before joining TSA, she spent 11 years working in TEC at housing association Your Homes Newcastle, following an earlier role at Newcastle City Council.

Dawn McNally, Chief Executive of Age UK North Tyneside, said, "We are absolutely delighted that Alyson has been recognised with an OBE. This honour is a fitting tribute to her exceptional leadership, unwavering commitment, and longstanding dedication to improving the lives of others.

“As Chair of Age UK North Tyneside for the past two years, Alyson has provided outstanding guidance and support, helping to strengthen our organisation and keep us innovative. Her passion, integrity, and tireless advocacy have made a lasting impact not only on our charity, but on the wider community we serve."

Everyone at TSA sends Alyson our warmest congratulations. This is a proud moment for Alyson, for the TSA team, and for a sector that has worked hard over many years to prove its value, build trust, improve safety and show the difference technology enabled care can make to people, families, carers and communities across the UK.