What's the difference between Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus?

Cyber Essentials is a verified self-assessment against five security controls. Cyber Essentials Plus tests the same controls with a hands-on technical audit by a licensed assessor. You must hold Cyber Essentials before doing Plus.

Do you do the work, or just assess us?

We do the work. Foresight runs the gap analysis, carries out hands-on remediation, prepares the evidence and liaises with the assessor, so you pass first time rather than paying to re-sit a failed audit.

How much does Cyber Essentials cost?

The IASME assessment fee is tiered by size from around £320 + VAT and includes £25,000 cyber liability insurance for eligible UK businesses. Cyber Essentials Plus is scoped to your estate, typically from around £1,380 + VAT.

Healthcare & Care

AI for Care Homes: where can care homes use AI safely?

AI can save your team real hours — here’s where it genuinely helps care homes, where to be careful, and how to use it safely.

Book an AI Readiness Audit Call 0161 738 1399

Why Foresight

Cyber Essentials Plus certified
Microsoft CSP & Copilot specialists
Greater Manchester, since 2006
Honest advice — not licence-selling

Quick answer

Care homes can use AI to take pressure off stretched teams — rotas and admin, policies, reports to families and regulators, and drafting — freeing staff to spend more time on care. Resident and medical data must stay firmly out of scope and protected, so start with non-clinical uses, tidy permissions, set a simple policy, and keep a human in the loop. NHS DSPT and information governance apply.

Where AI helps

Practical uses for care homes

Area	Where AI fits
Admin & rotas	Scheduling, emails and reports — Copilot
Policies	Drafting and updating policies — Copilot
Family & CQC comms	Summaries and reports — Copilot
Resident & medical data	Out of scope — kept protected

Doing it safely

Governance first

Resident and medical data is highly sensitive under NHS DSPT and information governance — it must stay out of public AI tools. Before rolling anything out, tidy permissions, put a simple AI usage policy in place, keep sensitive data out of public tools, and keep a human in the loop — all part of our AI Adoption service. See also NHS Data Security & Protection Toolkit.

Free downloads

Start today with our templates

The same free, ready-to-use templates we use in our audits:

“Day in the Life” AI template

Find exactly where AI will save your team time.

Download →

AI Usage Policy template

A short, practical AI policy to keep your data safe.

Download →

FAQs

Common questions

Can care homes use AI?

Yes — for admin, rotas, policies and reports to families and regulators. It frees staff to spend more time on care. Resident and medical data stays out of scope.

Is AI safe for resident data?

Only with the right controls — resident and medical data must stay in approved, secure systems and never go into public AI tools. NHS DSPT and IG apply.

What can AI do for a care home?

Speed up rotas and admin, draft and update policies, and produce reports for families and regulators — the non-clinical work that eats staff time.

Will AI replace care staff?

No — it removes behind-the-scenes admin so your team can focus on residents and care, which AI can’t do.

Put AI to work — safely

Start with a fixed-fee AI Readiness Audit and get a clear, honest plan — and the licences you actually need.

See AI Adoption as a Service Call 0161 738 1399