Anyone who works in a community loan equipment service or more widely in Adult Social Care, knows how difficult it is to keep track of equipment loaned to people to support reablement or longer term to help them be independent and safe at home. 

People often don’t realise or forget that the equipment is on loan, so when they don’t need or use it any more they put it in the attic, cupboard or shed – or those who are more mobile, take it to the dump, charity shop or recycling centre. Every year millions of items are not returned into the health and care system, despite the vast majority having the ability to be reused and recycled. 

Nearly 4 years ago, Sunderland City Council was a pioneer in seeking to address this issue head on. Driven by supply chain issues, rising costs, the green and Net Zero agendas, and simply by not having enough equipment to meet demand. Colleagues at Sunderland worked with CC2i to co-design a solution using our automated telephony platform (Contact&Connect), and launched a proactive approach to contact everyone with equipment, every three months via simple, scripted telephone calls and texts. 

Over the past 3 1⁄2 years over 12,500 people with equipment in the city have been contacted, and a staggering £1 million worth of equipment has been returned into the service.

Emma Anderson, Head of Therapies & Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Sunderland City Council/SCAS said: “Community loan equipment is a demand-led service, and we have always needed to manage the budget very carefully. What Contact&Connect has given us is the ability to manage within our budget – had we not introduced this we would have really struggled to continue to meet demand. Since Covid, our business itself changed quite dramatically… we used to work with a seven day target for turnaround and now we work with ‘today’. Having deployed Contact&Connect, we are able to rely on the continual flow of reissue equipment and keep up with demand.”

In addition to the clear savings, the calls are able to identify people who have broken equipment, who don’t feel safe using it, those who have moved out of the area (with the equipment), and those who aren’t using it and may need an alternative. These people are then followed up by the team in Sunderland to support the ongoing conversation and address changing requirements and needs.

Since the launch of Contact&Connect, multiple councils have deployed the approach to support not only equipment returns, but also Telecare services, Reablement, Proportionate Reviews, Wheelchair services and the ASC Front Door. With response rates of 60-70%, the ability to schedule calls to fit in with contact centre availability – and repeat the calls every few weeks or months – the automated telephony approach does what no team has the time to do – call everyone with equipment (or a care package), regularly, to check in on their safety and wellbeing. In a world where budgets are incredibly tight and teams are stretched, this simple, highly effective approach to prioritise responses, resources and returns is truly making a difference.