How Microsoft AI Promotes Face‑to‑Face Social Care in UK

AI often carries a reputation for lacking human touch, which is typically because it is used incorrectly. Lancashire County Council is reversing this narrative by using the technology to restore deep, relationship-based care in social work.

By automating the heavy administrative burden that traps practitioners behind keyboards, the local authority is proving that the smartest way to use AI is to make space for human connection.

By leveraging Microsoft's gen AI tools, Lancashire County Council is reducing administrative burdens on its social care teams, allowing practitioners to spend more time delivering face-to-face care to residents.

The strategy results in less duplication of work, more consistent documentation and enables more relationship-based care across the region.

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.”

Tackling high admin demands

Lancashire County Council serves more than 1.3 million residents across one of England’s largest local authorities. It handles highly demanding work across adult services, children services and special educational needs.

In children services, support ranges from early help to statutory intervention. This work involves schools, health services and charities working around a family.

The daily tasks of social workers and family support staff are deeply human. However, these roles have become heavily administrative due to recording visits and updating multiple systems.

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

He explains that workers often take notes during a visit and return to the office to write the same information up again. This duplication reduces quality contact time.

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.”

Saving 225,000 hours annually

To solve this problem, Lancashire County Council began exploring gen AI to remove repetitive administrative work in a way that supports professional judgement rather than replace it.

Social workers can capture a spoken account of a visit using Microsoft Teams or Facilitator on a phone. Microsoft 365 Copilot then turns that material into structured case notes.

This process produces consistent documentation quickly and efficiently. It ensures that the individuals who receive support do not have to retell their stories to different staff members.

In adult services, the same approach helps teams complete complex documents more efficiently. Draft reports that once took hours are now produced much faster as a starting point for review.

The council estimates that these gen AI use cases could save at least 225,000 hours a year across its services. Staff always review the output before making final decisions.

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.” 

The council designed tools and prompts around real working practices, including existing templates and reporting requirements.

Frontline staff quickly became expert users of the new systems. Peter notes that some employees in services were better at writing prompts than digital teams or Microsoft.

The council has rolled out Copilot to thousands of employees who actively use the tools. This implementation means staff spend less time writing about families and more time working with them.

Recently, the NHS also rolled out Microsoft 365 Copilot to 505,000 clinicians and support staff to create more time for care, improving service delivery and reducing costs.