On the 4th February 2022 we ran a webinar focused on ‘Supporting Social Care Through Automated Telephony’. The event was attended by over 40 councils and showcased how Sunderland, Gateshead & Kirklees Councils are using the new Contact&Connect platform, and the immediate results they have achieved.

We were really lucky to be joined by Natalie Proud, Service Improvement Manager from Gateshead Council. Natalie has successfully implemented Contact&Connect at the local authority to support their reablement programme when people go home from hospital with no other care in place. 

Natalie said ‘look at the ones which were aim achieved, but we wanted to stay in contact with them to ensure that they’re not slipping and coming back into the service. So our whole script was designed around supporting that, and having that regular contact with that client, so if they did answer negatively to one of those questions and say that they were struggling then we could actually make contact with that client.’ This new structure has been put in place to ensure that people are supported and also to avoid people coming back into the service, which is already extremely busy. 

Natalie spends some time talking through the questions people are asked, how the service has worked for Gateshead, and the benefits it has already brought to the council. Gateshead talked with us for around 30 minutes to detail how Contact&Connect is supporting their services and you can watch this section of the webinar by clicking the button below.