Our values: Ethical and accountable partnering

Derby City Council is bringing artificial intelligence into the adult social care space with the support of The Occupational Therapy Service. The Council has a strategy that is strong in terms of technology and is developing an AI product that replicates care reviews for vulnerable people at home. This platform significantly improves efficiency when determining proportionate care for elderly and disabled residents who require moving and handling.

Commissioned by the Council, associates from The Occupational Therapy Service went into the community and collated OT focused information from 250 residents requiring carer visits. The evidence gathered has been used to model an AI programme. Now this data is on the local authority’s system, its adult social care team can assign care provision based on previous client profiles – meaning considered replication which results in care being provided quicker and more accurately. This approach results in a significantly lower need for staff to manually generate recommendations and justifies single handed care where appropriate. When the need for two carers can be reduced to one, staff resources are freed up and can be assigned more effectively whilst maximising budgets.

On an ethical and accountable level, the AI product underpins Derby City Council’s promise to making transparent decisions that uphold the principles of proportionate care – a value shared with The Occupational Therapy Service. 

Andy Appleyard, Head of Adult and Social Care, is leading this AI project for Derby City Council. His team and The Occupational Therapy Service have worked together successfully as their integrity and client-centric approach is perfectly aligned. Andy explains:

“When it comes to care, this AI project is all about putting residents at the heart of the decision-making process. We want to support people to be as independent as possible.”

Andy continues: “The best way to support an individual typically involves two members of care staff going around moving and handling physically. This might be because of several identified risks such as challenging behaviour or safety concerns to members of staff in a property. To streamline efficiency, this AI programme removes the need for physical assessment of each new resident scenario to determine whether single handed care is possible – representing significant cost savings and efficient spend of the public purse.”

In terms of partnering with The Occupational Therapy Service Andy concludes: “The reason that we are so happy with The Occupational Therapy Service and specifically director Adam Ferry, is their priorities align with ours. They always put people at the centre of what they are doing. Adam and his associates conducted 250 moving and handling assessments and approximately 40% of those individuals have now moved to proportionate care. This we believe will be representative of the improvements that our new AI solution will deliver whilst honestly upholding the rights and needs of residents in the social care system.”