Implementation to digitalise and automate scheduling of over 36,000 home care visits a week will save time and money whilst improving communication with social care stakeholders
Totalmobile, the UK leader in Field Service Management software solutions, has announced it is working with South Lanarkshire Council to modernise the service that plans, schedules and carries out personal care to around 1,500 service users a week.
The council’s Care at Home Service operates seven days a week to help people remain as independent as they possibly can in their own home. The modernised service is being rolled out in four localities, starting with Hamilton in May 2021, over the next six months. Rutherlen & Cambuslang, Clydesdale, and East Kilbride localities will follow in that order before the end of the calendar year.
Historically, the service planned visits and resources manually, relying on a team’s local knowledge. It was a time intensive process, and any optimisation or changes required to a schedule were made manually. This proved troublesome due to the need to then communicate to a mobile workforce of almost 1,000 Home Carers.
A pilot was run initially in the Hamilton locality where Totalmobile’s Optimise, Mobilise and CareLink solutions were implemented. Jobs were scheduled via Totalmobile’s field service management technology that optimises resource and journey planning. It connects workers out in the field with the office via handheld mobile devices, and links to other stakeholders like GPs and the NHS service.
Scott McNeill, Service Manager for registered Care at Home Services at South Lanarkshire commented: “Modernising our Care at Home Service with Totalmobile enables us to direct more of our staff time towards supporting and makes us more efficient. We’d known for some time that our existing system had limited efficiency, it took one of our community support coordinators a day a week just scheduling jobs, and then inevitably changes had to be made. It was time intensive and reactive.
“The initial roll out in Hamilton for 30 carers working on 1,000 visits per week began in March and it couldn’t have run more smoothly. In fact, we went straight from pilot to live implementation with the support of Totalmobile training the workforce on its easy-to-use interface. The support we have received from Totalmobile has been tremendous, as has been the positive feedback we’ve received from our workforce. We are now more efficient than we’ve ever been.”
The dynamic nature of the new service now means that jobs can be rescheduled at short notice and avoids wasting resources through staff attending last minute cancellations. It also optimises journey planning so that no more time ‘on the road’ is spent than is necessary.
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