Hey Geraldine

Overview

Hey Geraldine is a bespoke artificial intelligence assistant developed by Peterborough City Council in partnership with Outcomes Matter Consulting (AI consultant) and Datnexa (impact innovation technology partner), an AWS partner, Bloom accredited supplier, and member of the NatWest Accelerator programme. The system is designed to provide real-time, personalised information and guidance to occupational therapists and social workers in the council's adult social care service. It is named after Geraldine Jinks, a real therapy practitioner with 35 years of professional experience in the field, whose expertise the system aims to replicate and make available at scale across the workforce. Geraldine worked directly with the development team to feed information into the system so the AI could answer questions in her 'chatty and direct manner'.

The development of Hey Geraldine was motivated by a recognition that frontline adult social care staff frequently need rapid access to specialist knowledge about assistive technology and Technology Enabled Care (TEC) solutions when advising service users. Prior to the system's introduction, practitioners would need to consult colleagues, search through documentation, or rely on their own experience to answer open-ended practice queries such as what options are available for a person who forgets to turn off their oven, or what assistive technology might help someone with specific mobility challenges. Hey Geraldine was designed to handle precisely these kinds of unstructured, natural language queries by drawing on a curated knowledge base of domain-specific content about assistive technology and TEC solutions relevant to the Peterborough area.

The system was developed over a period of approximately three months, with a six-week trial period used to test and refine the system with practitioners. The project was funded through the Hospital Discharge fund, a government winter pressures funding mechanism. The council's deliberate decision to build a bespoke AI tool rather than adopt a commercial off-the-shelf solution was driven by concerns about data privacy and the need for the system to incorporate local nuance specific to Peterborough's adult social care landscape, which commercial products were judged unable to adequately address. The development process was characterised by close collaboration between council staff, Outcomes Matter Consulting, and Datnexa, with twice-weekly huddle meetings and structured feedback forms used to iteratively refine the system during the build phase.

Hey Geraldine employs sophisticated natural language processing capabilities to understand and respond to the varied and often vague queries that practitioners pose in their daily work. One of the key technical challenges encountered during development was balancing specificity with generalisation: the system needed to provide sufficiently targeted advice for individual cases while remaining applicable across the broad range of scenarios that adult social care professionals encounter. The AI analyses interactions to identify knowledge gaps across the workforce and provides an insights dashboard that tracks recurring themes, time savings, and areas where additional training or resources may be needed.

During its six-week trial, the system handled over 1,200 conversations with practitioners. Staff feedback was strongly positive, with users reporting that the system's responses were 'exactly as Geraldine would advise', indicating a high degree of fidelity to the expert knowledge it was designed to encode. Geraldine Jinks herself noted that 'some staff told me they thought they were conversing with me directly'. Quantitative evaluation found that the system saved approximately 15 minutes per conversation compared to traditional methods of seeking the same information, resulting in over 300 hours of total time saved during the trial period.

Prior to deployment, Peterborough City Council completed Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs), Data Processing Agreements (DPAs), and service agreements to ensure the system met governance and compliance requirements. These formal assessments reflect the council's commitment to responsible AI deployment in a sensitive public service context where the information provided can directly affect the care and support available to vulnerable adults.

The system is currently in a prototype and testing phase, with plans to expand its availability to a broader set of users. The next phase of development is a self-serve version of Hey Geraldine for Peterborough residents, extending the system's reach beyond council practitioners to the general public. Additional future development plans include integration with Microsoft Teams to embed the assistant more seamlessly into practitioners' existing workflows, and the establishment of Technology Enabled Care champions within the council to promote adoption and provide peer support. The system is accessible via the HeyGeraldine.co.uk website. The Local Government Association has featured Hey Geraldine as a case study in its collection of innovative council AI implementations, recognising it as an example of how local authorities can develop tailored AI solutions to address specific service delivery challenges in adult social care.

Classification

Programme Details

Peterborough City Council's adult social care service, which provides support to vulnerable adults including occupational therapy and Technology Enabled Care (TEC) assessments. Hey Geraldine is an AI assistant developed to support occupational therapists and social workers by providing real-time guidance on assistive technology and TEC solutions.

Implementation Details

Risk & Oversight

Deployment & Outcomes

Sources

1. SRC-002-GBR-006 Datnexa (2024) 'Reflections on Developing an AI Assistant for Adult Social Care - "Hey Geraldine"', Datnexa Blog. Available at: https://www.datnexa.com/post/reflections-on-developing-an-ai-assistant-for-adult-social-care-hey-geraldine (Accessed: 27 March 2026).
   https://www.datnexa.com/post/reflections-on-developing-an-ai-assistant-for-adult-social-care-hey-geraldine
2. SRC-004-GBR-006 Datnexa (2024) 'The Story Behind Hey Geraldine's Development', Datnexa Blog. Available at: https://www.datnexa.com/post/the-story-behind-hey-geraldine-s-development (Accessed: 30 March 2026).
   https://www.datnexa.com/post/the-story-behind-hey-geraldine-s-development
3. SRC-001-GBR-006 Local Government Association (2024) 'Peterborough City Council: Hey Geraldine, a personalised AI assistant', LGA Case Studies, December. Available at: https://www.local.gov.uk/case-studies/peterborough-city-council-hey-geraldine-personalised-ai-assistant (Accessed: 27 March 2026).
   https://www.local.gov.uk/case-studies/peterborough-city-council-hey-geraldine-personalised-ai-assistant
4. SRC-003-GBR-006 Peterborough City Council (2024) 'Council turns long-standing staff member into a Chatbot to support social workers', Peterborough City Council. Available at: https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/engagement-hub/council-turns-long-standing-staff-member-into-a-chatbot-to-support-social-workers (Accessed: 30 March 2026).
   https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/engagement-hub/council-turns-long-standing-staff-member-into-a-chatbot-to-support-social-workers