Contact&Connect Case Study
Sunderland City Council and their use of Contact&Connect to proactively support people as they are discharged from Reablement services
BACKGROUND
With a successful automated telephony service supporting people with community loan equipment, Sunderland City Council saw the value of scripting an automated call that checked in with people as they came off the Reablement pathway – every two weeks – up until the 90 day mark. This service has been running since October 2022, keeping in touch with people as they return to live independently at home.
THE CHALLENGE
People face a range of challenges as they are discharged from the reablement services. Having been in hospital, then had a reablement package, it is the time when people find themselves back at home and often without any ongoing care and support. Sometimes people lack confidence, they hit a crisis and don’t know who to call, they feel isolated and alone, or less able than they did before. As a result, there is a high proportion of people that return to hospital, and a further group of people who represent at their GP, in need of some further medical or care-related assistance.
WHAT IS CONTACT&CONNECT: REABLEMENT?
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 specifically to check in with people post-reablement. Now an automated call goes out every 2 weeks, for 3 months once a person comes off the Reablement pathway.
“It’s like an ‘ASC safety belt’ in those first few critical weeks”
WHY CONTACT&CONNECT?
Via these calls, Sunderland is able to make regular contact with all the people as they return to their life following reablement. The automated approach allows the post reablement team to check in with everyone, and ensure they are OK. Where people identify an issue (by pressing a number on their telephone keypad), say with the equipment they now have, managing their daily living, feeling safe, if they are struggling with something or have had a fall, Adult Social Care (ASC) colleagues pick up the phone and have a conversation.
IMPLEMENTATION & SUPPORT
With the calls going out to people every two weeks, the ASC team can track individual progress through post reablement, and pick up the phone to address an issue as they arise, rather than if/when it becomes a crisis. With call response data appearing in cloud based dashboards within minutes of the scheduled calls, colleagues are on hand to follow up. In most cases it is just a confidence call that is required, but in other cases it has led to people being reassessed, a change in equipment or another approach.
OUTCOMES
The service has now been live for 2 and a half years and across that time:
- Over 8,500 calls have been made to 1,002 people, with a unique response rate of 63%
- 55% of people never identified an issue, and the council was clear that these people were fine and coping post reablement
- 45% of people did cite an issue at some point over the 3 months and were followed up by a member of the team;
- Over 200 people confirmed not feeling safe or confident
- 226 confirmed they did not have adequate social contact
- 273 confirmed they were not able to manage their daily living
- 258 were not able to get around their home safely
- All these people were then followed up by a member of the team to discuss the situation. Often the call was simple, a chat, either instilling confidence in the person or reminding them of the support available to them. In other cases further intervention or equipment was needed
- The system is able to support Sunderland with the prioritisation of resources and responses, it is able to track people across those critical 3 months post discharge and help people be confident, safe and able at home once more.
LOOKING AHEAD
Sunderland’s CQC report cited Contact&Connect as one of the ways in which most of their reablement service discharges were “to home and with outcomes met.” Sunderland used better care funds ”to provide the right care in the right place at the right time”.
“Examples of this included increased capacity within discharge to assess teams (D2A), implementation of therapy team to support people in residential and nursing homes, increased use of personal assistants to support non-complex discharges and improved use of automated telephony post discharge.”
Calls continue to go out to people as they are discharged from reablement services, the script is clear and concise and the call response data informs the wider ASC process, but critically ensures that any issues are dealt with as quickly as possible.
