The Domiciliary Care Workforce Programme was a three-year initiative trialling the use of AI-based optimisation technology in domiciliary care. It identified a number of opportunities for local authorities and care providers to improve the planning of homecare, offering potentially significant benefits for care workers, service users and the social care sector as a whole.
The Programme was led and co-funded by Health Innovation West of England, Health Innovation South West, and NHS England Workforce, Training and Education South West (formerly Health Education England South West).
A nationwide call was launched in 2021 to identify potential innovations. A panel of representatives from across the health and social care system assessed more than 30 applications, selecting Procomp’s Strategic Optimisation service as the appropriate solution to trial.
Procomp is a Finnish company with a background in logistics planning and optimisation. The company works with a third of the Finnish domiciliary care workforce. They use an AI-based solution to optimise planning, reduce mileage and improve carer utilisation, as well as to support key decision-makers identify and implement systemic changes.
Two local authorities were selected to take part in the trial, as part of a call to all local authorities in the South West.
We commissioned Unity Insights to independently evaluate the Domiciliary Care Workforce Programme. The evaluation focused on the acceptability and implementation of Procomp’s Strategic Optimisation service, its effectiveness against desired outcomes, and a value-based health economic review.
The evaluation report was published in May 2024. Find out more in our case study.
