Contact&Connect Insight Day
We hosted the Insight Day on October the 1st, with five speakers from councils using the Contact&Connect automated telephony platform to support a range of Adult Social Care services. In total there was over five hours of content, with speakers covering everything from how the platform works, to the benefits the calls bring in terms of CQC Inspections, Proportionate Reviews, driving the return of telecare, community loan equipment – and more.
We wanted to share the key points and headlines of the day more widely, and – rather than you having to wade through 5 hours of content – we have played with AI to summarise the sessions, into more accessible assets.
Below you can find:
- AI generated summaries of each of the five council led sessions;
- Key quotes from the speakers;
- Links to the presentation slides;
- Links to the recording of each session;
- Plus a very cheesy – and very American – podcast of the day (we were just playing with the AI and the podcast self-generated, so we thought we would share!)
Service: ASC Proportionate Reviews – Sunderland City Council (Julie Lynn):
Key Quotes: “The aim of implementing this particular program was twofold: we wanted to get customer feedback about the assessment process and care provision, but also how we could ask certain questions that would help us triage people for their annual review.”
“We’ve saved a significant amount of time in qualified worker time, which is diverted to those people who have perhaps more complex needs…This allows us to start applying some proportionality based on what customers were telling us.”
“The feedback from our customers has been really positive; they find the process easy to use, and the SMS messages provide a convenient way for them to access information when they need it.”
AI Summary: Julie from Sunderland City Council shares insights into their automated telephony service aimed at improving customer feedback and efficiency in the assessment process. Julie explains that the initiative has two main goals: obtaining customer feedback on the assessment and care provision process and triaging individuals for timely reviews.
The service targets community-based customers and employs a series of calls to gather responses, which are followed up with SMS messages to provide additional information. The response rates have been encouraging, with an average of 58%, exceeding initial expectations.
Julie emphasises the importance of pre-engagement with customers to mitigate concerns and improve understanding of the process. The collected data is used to inform service improvements, assess customer needs, and streamline the review process, allowing social workers to focus on clients with more complex needs. Overall, the automated telephony service has led to significant time savings and better resource allocation within Sunderland’s social care system.
Service: Community Loan Equipment – Sunderland City Council (Emma Anderson):
Key Quote: “Our engagement rate is really high, with a 72% unique response rate, showing customers are keen to engage with us. This isn’t just about guarding resources; it’s also about the customers’ well-being and safety.”
AI Summary: The discussion focuses on Sunderland’s Community Equipment Service, which supports residents’ independence by providing necessary equipment. Challenges around equipment accessibility, supply chain disruptions, and the need for efficient equipment tracking and recovery were outlined. Sunderland’s Contact&Connect system was implemented, allowing the service to keep regular contact with customers and ensure equipment is used appropriately and safely.
This service helps track equipment, check on users’ safety, and foster ongoing relationships between the council and service users. Sunderland has seen success in terms of customer engagement, high response rates, and increased return rates for equipment. Moreover, the initiative has had unexpected benefits, including cultural shifts in equipment management, safety assurance for users, and contributions to carbon footprint reduction.
Service: Telecare & Community Loan Equipment – Sefton Council (Diane Clayton):
Key Quote: “We realised that there was quite a lot of lost equipment within the community… people weren’t returning equipment or families were just… storing it, skipping it, or finding it in charity shops. In doing our research, we found that about 28,000 items of equipment were being returned to equipment stores annually, with a total value of just shy of £4 million. That highlighted the massive resource loss we were facing.”
AI Summary: Diane Clayton, the Strategic Lead for Independent Living and Technology Enabled Care, discusses the council’s work to implement an automated telephony system aimed at improving health and well-being calls for Telecare users. The initiative arose from a TSA audit, which identified capacity issues within a small team responsible for making these calls to approximately 3,500 clients.
Before automation, it would take weeks to reach all clients for their health checks, so the council sought a more efficient solution. The presentation details how the new system will not only facilitate health checks, but also help recover lost equipment within the community, which has significant financial implications for the council. The anticipated benefits include reclaiming up to 10% of previously lost equipment, estimated to save the council between £100,000 and £150,000 annually.
Diane also emphasises the importance of tailoring communication scripts to ensure clarity for service users and the necessity of collaboration between different service areas. The implementation process involved extensive testing, training, and engagement with community groups, and feedback has been positive. With ongoing adjustments and future expansions in mind, Diane expresses confidence in the system’s potential to enhance service delivery and operational efficiency.
Service: Telecare – Sefton Council (Joanne Alty):
Key Quote: “The sooner the kit comes back in, the sooner you’re putting it back out there with other people. Before automated telephony, it was taking one member of staff several weeks to at least try and get through to all those clients.”
AI Summary: Joanne outlines the challenges faced before the automation, including the time-consuming nature of making individual calls to approximately 3,500 service users, which often resulted in insufficient follow-up.
The new system allows for more efficient communication and feedback collection after the installation of Telecare equipment, helping to identify users who may struggle with the equipment and gather satisfaction metrics. Joanne highlights the positive impact of the automated system, noting that more than half of the users contacted have responded positively.
The data collected is seen as essential for improving service delivery and ensuring that customers receive the support they need.
Service: CQC Inspection – Wiltshire Council (Susan Denmark):
Key Quotes:
“This is important; it gives us a reason … an accountable process for improving and continuing support.”
“Hearing feedback, especially from people with safety concerns or frequent falls, helps teams identify specific areas for more focused support.”
AI Summary: The discussion centres on Wiltshire Council’s experience implementing an automated telephony service to gather feedback from adult social care users. The programme demonstrates value by improving communication and safety tracking, and the data collected is not being used in a variety of ways. Key questions include whether service users feel safe, supported, and socially connected. Those who responded negatively to safety questions receive a follow-up within one working day. This data provided valuable insights for social care teams, identifying concerns like accessibility of healthcare, social isolation, and fall risks. The council also found that feedback confirmed areas of success, provided insight into seldom-heard voices, and highlighted broader issues that warranted proactive support.
In addition to all of the above there is a 9 minute AI generated podcast discussion trying to bring together all the learning and key points from the day. We are not 100% what we think about it, but actually it does summarise the day well and – despite the American accents and somewhat ‘forced’ conversational style – it does highlight Contact&Connect really well.
