Protecting millions of children from abuse

As the UK’s leading children’s charity, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) aims to protect children and prevent abuse. And it has helped more than 10 million children over its long history. Services include Childline, there for worried young people who have nowhere else to turn, and the NSPCC helpline for adults who are worried about the welfare of a child or who have suffered abuse themselves.

The NSPCC relies on more than 1,300 part-time volunteers across 12 service centers to keep these services running. Answering every call is its top priority, but with volumes rising, an aging IT infrastructure made it increasingly difficult to meet that goal. Inability to link case management, resource planning and other back-office systems added to the challenge.

“Each service center comes online at different times of the week, so we have many short-shift patterns to manage,” said Ray Bilsby, CIO for NSPCC. “Also, with youngsters today preferring to use online tools rather than call, we wanted to extend reach and improve access by adding digital and social channels, while still keeping privacy top of mind.”

Exceeding ambitious project goals

The charity embarked on its most complex technology challenge. Implemented by its partner Connect, the solution blends calls, email and webchat using the Genesys Engage product, integrated with Zoom recording and Microsoft Dynamics CRM applications.

“Complementary products and reliable support showed value for money,” said Bilsby. “We’ve invested in new online tools, like unified desktops and softphones, and made our website more user-friendly. We’ve opened up opportunities that once looked a million miles away.”

A primary goal of the upgrade was ensuring maximum availability of Childline and the NSPCC helpline services. Benefits include making more effective use of counselor capacity, along with the ability to engage supervisors to handle high-risk contacts. Children who don’t want to talk openly can express themselves, for instance, by drawing pictures using online interactive whiteboards.

Planning for peak periods

Behind the scenes, Genesys Workforce Engagement Management handles forecasting and scheduling to ensure the NSPCC has the right people in the right place, at the right time.

“We used to rely on tribal knowledge and information buried in complex spreadsheets, which was okay until people went on holiday or fell ill,” added Bilsby. “Now, it’s easier to plan because we’ve got better quality data and clearer sight of supply and demand across all 12 service centers.” This is especially important during busy periods, for instance at Christmas and when children go back to school or start exams.

Feedback from NSPCC agents has been encouraging. They especially like record simplification for low-risk cases. So, they spend less time on admin and more time using their specialist skills in responding to calls, emails and chat messages.

Addressing digitally outstripped resources

Digital trends continue to place extra demands on NSPCC resources. “Chat interactions currently account for around 50% of all contacts and, on average, last seven times longer than a call,” said Bilsby. “So, with demand for digital services continuing to outstrip the supply of counselors, we’ve got to keep looking for ways to work smarter and drive efficiency.”

One of the ways NSPCC is looking to achieve this is by introducing Genesys voice analytics to boost quality assurance and training. The charity also plans to use Genesys Engage to enable home workers to deal with certain contact categories. For example, while counselors need emotional support from colleagues and service center-based confidentiality, interactions with lower safeguarding risks could be performed confidentially via webchat. In turn, that makes it easier to attract new volunteers, such as passionate helpers who cannot travel, while freeing up counselors to deal with more serious cases.

Fresh thinking powers innovation

In the future, the charity hopes to sense and intervene if a child is at risk. They expect to do so by adding Snapchat and WhatsApp social media channels, or by adopting artificial intelligence and automation technologies, to improve situational awareness.

“We’re looking to trusted advisors like Genesys to invest time and help us get the most out of new technologies on our journey to end child abuse,” concluded Bilsby. “We’re exploring use cases for Genesys predictive analytics, for example, to inform counselors that a child has been browsing bullying advice online. So, they might start by asking general questions, such as, ‘How are things at school?’ Driving the discussion down a path that might otherwise have been missed without that insight.”