How Microsoft AI Can Save 225,000 Social Care Hours Annually

Lancashire County Council has deployed Microsoft generative AI tools across its social care services to reduce administrative workload and increase direct contact time between practitioners and residents.

The council serves more than 1.3 million people across adult services, children services and special educational needs. Social workers and support staff can now record visit notes using Microsoft Teams or Facilitator, which Microsoft 365 Copilot converts into structured case documentation.

According to Lancashire County Council, the implementation could save at least 225,000 hours annually across the organisation. Staff review all AI-generated output before finalising decisions, ensuring professional oversight remains central to the process.

Brett Aspden, Mental Health Social Care Lead at Lancashire County Council, says: "Being able to engage with the people we support is a key facet of social care.

"Paperwork and admin have always created barriers to how much time we can spend doing that. AI has supported me and our teams to have more time to focus on people."

Removing duplication from workflows

Social workers in Lancashire previously recorded visit notes during home visits and later re-entered the same information into multiple systems. This duplication reduced the time available for direct family contact and created inefficiencies in daily workflows.

Chris Hayes, Performance Quality Review Officer at Lancashire County Council, says: "We were constantly getting feedback that people felt very burdened with admin."

Children services work involves schools, health services and charities coordinating around families. This work ranges from early help to statutory intervention. Recording requirements for these interactions added substantial non-contact hours to practitioner schedules.

Amisha Chauhan, Digital Innovation Manager at Lancashire County Council, adds: "Spending time on admin was not what our practitioners signed up to do when they decided to become social workers.

"By reducing that burden, we can give them more time to focus on helping families."

Building tools with frontline staff

Lancashire County Council designed the generative AI prompts and workflows around existing templates and reporting requirements. Frontline employees participated in creating the systems they would use daily.

Peter Lloyd, Director of Digital at Lancashire County Council, says: "With the emergence of generative AI, there was a real opportunity to change how we work.

"But success depended on building solutions with the people using them every day."

Peter notes that some staff in services became more proficient at writing prompts than digital teams or Microsoft personnel. The council has now distributed Copilot to thousands of employees across the organisation who use the tools regularly.

The spoken-record approach means individuals receiving support do not need to repeat their stories to different staff members. Documentation consistency has improved across services.

Faster completion of complex reports

In adult services, practitioners use the same tools to complete complex assessment documents. Draft reports that previously required several hours are now produced more quickly as starting points for professional review.

The technology supports professional judgement rather than replacing it. Social workers retain responsibility for all final documentation and decisions.

The implementation means practitioners spend less time writing about families and more time working with them. The council reports that relationship-based care has increased as a result of reduced administrative demands.

The NHS rolled out Microsoft 365 Copilot to 505,000 clinicians and support staff to create additional time for patient care and reduce costs.