Plans for robot cleaners in two East Ayrshire schools will be considered as one of five bids to East Ayrshire Council’s Innovation Fund.
The cabinet will look at the proposals on Wednesday, the biggest of which is for £1.5m to change care at home from a paper-based system to a digital one.
The report to EAC cabinet claims that the introduction of two robot cleaners at a cost of £86k will not be a replacement for staff.
The Barony Campus in Cumnock has been cited as on of the possible locations.
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It states: “Facilities and Property Management is seeking to invest in two robotic cleaners, which would be trialled at Barony Campus and William McIlvanney Campus.
“A significant amount of staff time is currently spent cleaning large, mainly empty floor spaces, such as sports halls, dining halls and assembly halls.
“This is a time-consuming, repetitive task and a robotic cleaner could clean these areas much quicker, allowing cleaners to focus on spot cleaning, disinfecting, high-touch points and other areas that a machine is not able to reach effectively.”
The two machines would cost £86k, including installation and training.
The service claims that the service would be able to repay that investment within three years.
The report adds thatit ‘has the potential to improve service levels and reduce sickness absence, by alleviating pressures on employees of undertaking certain tasks’.
The Health and Social Care Partnership proposes a programme of Care at Home Digital Transformation
The report revealed that the proportion of care provided ‘in house’ in East Ayrshire was 90 per cent in 2023/24, compared to 81 per cent in 2021/22.
It is expected to overspend its budget of £16.2m by £2.4m in 2024/25.
Despite the level of in-house provision, Care at Home is run using a paper-based approach to delivery, monitoring and scheduling.
The report states: “Given the inadequacies of the current service model there is significant urgency in progressing toward transformation and optimising efficient delivery of the service.”
The proposed development would allow real time access for information on people receiving the care, information on those leaving hospital, AI monitoring of care capacity and scheduling of visits.
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The investment would be over a four year period, with savings used to reduce overspend.
The Health and Social Care Partnership is also looking for support to complete its work to develop digital technology and ensure staff are able to adapt.
The report states that there opportunities for alternatives to traditional care delivery.
It adds: “For example, medication dispensing carousels can aid people to maintain independent medication administration.
“Other smart support devices available include activity monitoring kits; door monitors; bed occupancy sensors; motion sensors; temperature sensors and flood detectors.”
The proposed reading programme would see an expansion of digital literacy work to Early Childhood Centres and all East Ayrshire schools.
The request for £178k would be used for licenses, access to online literacy resources.
The final proposal is for a replacement cashless catering system costing £106k.
The report states: “The new system will introduce easier and more flexible meal pre-ordering options, including pre-ordering through an app in Secondary Schools and will feature improved reporting functionality, empowering the service with better data for more informed decision making. “
It adds that the information gleaned from the system would create a better understanding of need and demand for meals, which would held deliver the service as ‘efficiently and effectively as possible with minimum wastage’.
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