Contact&Connect Case Study
Sunderland City Council Uses Automated Telephony to Support Proportionate Assessments & Reviews
BACKGROUND
Having deployed a range of successful automated telephony services, whenever Sunderland City Council now remodel an ASC service they ask themselves if Contact&Connect could play a role. In 2023, when the Chief Social Worker put forward the proportionate assessment approach, Sunderland colleagues started to consider how the calls might be able to support the new model.
THE CHALLENGE
The crux of proportionate reviews is to deliver the “right support at the right time, in partnership with the person”. With social worker time and expertise in high demand, knowing who is satisfied with their care and support package and who needs a deeper, more comprehensive review, is critical to a safe and proportionate approach.
“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.” – Julie Lynn, Head of Business Development, Adult Services
WHAT IS CONTACT&CONNECT: PROPORTIONATE & ANNUAL REVIEW?
Contact&Connect is an automated telephony platform co-designed by councils to engage with people who draw on their care and support services. Colleagues at Sunderland City Council developed a script which specifically asks people how they feel about their care and support package, and based on their responses they are prioritised for a social worker led review or a more proportionate approach undertaken via a trusted partner.
WHY CONTACT&CONNECT?
With a range of other ASC-focused automated telephony services, people who draw on ASC services in Sunderland City Council (SCC) are used to the calls and are happy to engage with the council and give their feedback using the telephone. With many in the ASC cohort being older people – many without internet access or digital skills – the calls and texts are a much more effective way of keeping in contact with people, than emails, letters or using the team to make follow up calls.
“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.” – Julie Lynn, Head of Business Development, Adult Services
IMPLEMENTATION & SUPPORT
Working with social workers to ask a very specific set of questions, SCC is able to identify those people who are not ‘Safe & Able’, those who want more ‘Social Contact’, those who do not feel ‘Supported & Heard’ or do not feel they had a ‘say in their care package decisions’, and prioritise them for a social worker led review. Everyone else who is happy in those four areas is directed for a review with a trusted partner.
OUTCOMES
The service has now been live for 18 months and across that time:
- 2,123 calls have been made to 1,170 people, with a response rate of 67%
- Using the calls as a way to triage people 65% have then gone on to have a review via a trusted partner and 35% of people have a social worker led review
- People are contacted in a more timely manner and have seen a reduction in complaints and the need to escalate emergency provision
- The calls have supported the reduction of the review backlog
- The revised approach allows SCC to use their social worker time more effectively for people with complex needs
- Financial saving for the first 12 months is estimated to be c£85,000
“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.” – Julie Lynn, Head of Business Development, Adult Services
LOOKING AHEAD
Contact&Connect was cited a number of times in Sunderland’s CQC inspection report, specifically in terms of this service they said:
“The local authority had commissioned and implemented an automated telephony app to expand its ongoing communication and feedback with customers. The automated call took place annually and supported the completion of the annual review. It also gathered feedback on the assessment and care planning process. This also enabled the local authority to measure the effectiveness of the care it commissioned, capturing themes and trends about what was working well and where improvements were needed.”
With six Contact&Connect services live and supporting a range of ASC services in Sunderland, the latest addition to the portfolio is a script to support the ASC Front Door.
Sunderland continues to bring the call response data into PowerBI along with other data feeds to provide a comprehensive picture of ASC delivery across the city.
