Case Study: Barnet Council achieves faster emergency call handling and cost savings with Capita

Making sure that true emergency callers get priority with an intelligent out of hours service

Barnet Council faced a high volume of non-emergency out-of-hours calls that made it harder for genuine emergencies to get rapid help. In 2018, it partnered with Capita to improve the quality and efficiency of its emergency out-of-hours service for residents, especially the most vulnerable.

Capita implemented a data-driven call handling service with improved analytics, scripts, and IVR messaging to filter out non-urgent calls while prioritizing real emergencies. Since then, Capita has handled more than 25,000 calls across 13 council services, cut non-emergency call volumes from 59.8% in 2018 to 23.3% in 2021, and delivered savings of up to £2,500 per month.

Barnet Council

Barry May

Head of Customer and Digital Services