Case Study: Harrow Council reduces social care costs and improves citizen care with IBM Watson Health

Reducing costs and empowering citizens with help from IBM Watson Health

Harrow Council, a local government body in northwest London, faced the significant challenge of needing to reduce its social services budget by millions of pounds while serving a large and diverse population with an increasing number of elderly citizens. To meet this challenge, the council sought to scale up its existing My Community ePurse (MCeP) personal budget system by adding a healthcare component and needed a technology partner to help.

With the help of IBM and the implementation of the IBM Watson Care Manager platform, the council integrated health and social care data into its solution. This provided professionals with a comprehensive view of citizen needs and empowered individuals to choose tailored services. The partnership, which utilized IBM Design Thinking, anticipates a massive expansion in users and expects to significantly reduce costs by driving competition and preventing hospitalizations, building on existing annual savings of GBP 1 million from the MCeP system.

Harrow Council

Bernie Flaherty

Director of Adult Social Services