The system does not volunteer information. Carers find grants, assessments, and support groups only by searching independently, often after the moment when they would have been most useful. This tool pushes what is relevant before the carer has to ask.
"She navigated signposting loops for hours, following contact leads only to be redirected endlessly. She found groups, grants, and assessments only by searching independently, often after the moment when they would have been most useful."Primary source: carer of a stroke and cardiac surgery survivor, sole coordinator across nine NHS departments
A directory waits to be searched. It places the burden of knowing what to look for on someone who is, by definition, in the worst position to know what exists.
A navigation tool pushes relevant information at the right moment in the journey, before the carer knows they need it. The difference is the difference between active and passive. Between arriving before the crisis and arriving after it.
Once a resource has been surfaced, the decision and the relationship belong to the carer. The tool makes action as easy as possible, a direct link, a template message, a record that the step was taken, but it does not make the decision for them.
Situational awareness of where the carer is in the journey. Resources, assessments, and entitlements surfaced automatically at the right stage, before the carer has to search for them.
Places the burden of knowing what to look for on the person who is least equipped to know. Available in theory. Inaccessible in practice. Reached only after the moment has passed.
Six functions, working together. The tool does not make decisions for the carer, it removes the invisible barrier between the carer and the resources that exist to help them.
This cluster activates hardest in the acute and structural phases, when the carer is first building their understanding of what exists, and when they are most at risk of missing what would help them most.
The interface below illustrates intended functionality using the same fictional persona as Cluster 01, Michael's carer, six weeks into the acute phase. The left panel shows resources being proactively surfaced at this stage of the journey. The right panel shows the action log, what has been surfaced, when, and what happened next.
Coordination and Navigation requires something the other clusters do not, situational awareness. The tool must understand enough about where the carer is to surface what is relevant. Three constraints govern how that awareness is built and used.
Not a lengthy assessment. Enough signal to know whether the carer is in the acute phase, the marathon, or approaching a transition. The burden of establishing that context must be lower than the burden of not having it.
The tool pushes at the right moment. It does not wait. A resource surfaced six months too late is not a resource. It is a reminder of what was missed. Timing is not a secondary concern; it is the primary one.
Once a resource has been surfaced, the tool's role is to make action as easy as possible, a direct link, a template, a record that the step was taken. It does not make the decision. It does not follow up on the carer's behalf. It enables.
Surfacing something useful is only valuable if what is surfaced leads somewhere. A navigation tool that surfaces a resource and leaves the carer at a dead end has added load, not removed it.
"Does surfacing this resource make the carer's next hour easier or harder? If there is no actionable path attached, it makes it harder."
The design test, applied to every item before it enters the surfacing engineThe full build of Cluster 02 is reserved for funded development. If you are a commissioner, ICB lead, or funder working in unpaid carer support, we would like to hear from you.