Peterborough City Council may not have been able to actually ‘clone’ a worker – but they have done the next best thing to ensure her knowledge and skills can be passed on to other workers.

The authority said that Geraldine Jinks, a therapy practitioner, has worked for the council for 35 years, and knows pretty much everything there is to know about technology assisted care and how to help residents stay independent in their own homes for longer.

In order to protect that knowledge – and ensure it is available for colleagues when Geraldine is not at work, Geraldine’s manager wanted to find a solution – and one of the solutions in Peterborough has been to develop an Hey Geraldine AI ChatBot.

In 2023, the council brought in Datnexa – an impact innovation partner who helped to bring ‘Hey Geraldine’ from page to product – and Outcome Matters, an AI and emerging technology consultant.

These partners have helped to streamline the council’s technology assisted care offer to help increase hospital discharge rates, increase wellbeing by helping with independence and ease the workload of carers. This was paid for using a Hospital Discharge fund awarded by the Government to ease winter pressures for local authorities.

Over the course of 3 months, Geraldine worked with the team to feed the AI tool information so it could answer questions asked on a daily basis in her usual chatty and direct manner.

The ChatBot is part of a suite of preventative measures to enable people to remain independent. It sits alongside a Virtual Smart Flat (a virtual show home of technology assisted care equipment) which also gives staff members visual information to support decision making. The council has also collaborated with our suppliers of equipment to provide ‘How To’ and information videos about appropriate use and installation.

‘Hey Geraldine’ can respond to contextual and practice-based questions, such as “I am working with a person who is forgetting to turn the oven off. What is available to help them?” providing a range of answers to include simple solutions (locking cooker valves and potential checks by the fire service). In addition, it will link to additional helpful resources.

Geraldine said: “It was so exciting to develop this ChatBot. Staff within the organisation can now ask ‘me’ questions whenever they want and receive a reply straightaway.

“It’s lovely that they’ve kept my name and some staff have told me that they actually thought they were chatting with me – I guess that’s because I’ve written all the answers!

“The Hey Geraldine ChatBot helps staff get a response quickly – day or night. It also means that I am free to work on more complex cases and questions. I work quicker now and it’s easier to complete my own tasks as I’m not interrupted as much.”

Councillor Shabina Qayyum, cabinet member for adults and health at Peterborough City Council, said: “As a GP, I know how incredibly frustrating it can be for patients who are delayed in returning to their home after a stay in hospital. Delays also have an impact on the finances of both the NHS and local authorities.

“The use of technology assisted care like smart devices and home activity sensors can really help people to gain their independence quickly again. The Hey Geraldine ChatBot helps staff to put these technologies in place with all the knowledge and care that Geraldine herself would use.”