Contact&Connect: CQC Inspections is one of the many live services that uses the automated telephony approach to support adult social care processes and prioritise those who need help or who may be hitting crisis.

The CQC assurance inspection process emphasises regular engagement with service users, their families, advocates, and carers. However, existing engagement and feedback processes are often paper-based and time-consuming, resulting in non-standardised and potentially biased or unrepresentative results. Automating contact with service users provides an easy and comprehensive way to gather ongoing feedback and real-time results allow for continuous improvement and early identification of issues before they escalate into complaints or trends. 

Contact&Connect scripts for CQC have been co-designed with Sunderland City Council, aligning with TLAP statements. The questions focus on support and inclusion in care decisions, safety, social contact, and access to information and advice. Calls are made throughout the year to maintain continuous engagement, and users are contacted again two weeks before their annual review. While each partner has customised scripts and call configurations, we have a solid foundation based on our development and testing with ASC colleagues.