More adult social-care requests
Between 2015/16 and 2023/24, while only 2% more people accessed support.
For councils, neighbourhood teams and VCSE partnerships
One front door for residents. One connected neighbourhood network behind it.
Bridgit connects residents to council services, VCSE partners and community assets through one approachable conversation. Each journey also creates useful resident insight, showing what people need, which pathways work and where unmet need is emerging.
Reduce avoidable front door demand and see what residents need, which pathways work and where gaps are emerging, without replacing your systems or your people.
Hear from our partners
01One connected front door02Council + VCSE pathways03Live neighbourhood insight
Built with councils. Proven in neighbourhoods.
Brum Chat demonstrates the model in practice: one resident-facing service connecting personalised advice, Birmingham pathways and trusted neighbourhood partners, with insight for the organisations behind it.
The pressure is visible in the numbers
More complex need is reaching services later.
Councils are being asked to resolve rising and increasingly connected need with less room for prevention. A clearer front door matters because the cost of people getting lost is measured in both outcomes and capacity.
EHC plans issued on time
Only half met the statutory 20-week deadline in 2023.
Families beyond the B&B limit
Nearly 3,800 families spent longer than the six-week legal limit in temporary B&B accommodation.
Spent on late intervention
Children’s social-care late-intervention spend rose as prevention spend fell to £2.8bn.
Prevention has measurable value. LGA evidence estimates earlier adult social-care support can return more than £3 for every £1 invested.
Sources: National Audit Office, 2025 and Local Government Association Spending Review submission.
The challenge for local authorities
Demand grows when residents must navigate the system alone.
A question about housing may also involve money, health, caring, work or isolation. Fragmented routes create repeat contact, late intervention and unnecessary pressure on already stretched teams.
What this feels like in real life
One resident. Several connected needs. Too many front doors.
When every route begins separately, residents repeat their story, staff repeat navigation work and manageable problems are more likely to become urgent demand.
Front doors are overloaded
Routine questions, repeat contact and avoidable navigation work consume capacity that should be focused on complex need and human judgement.
The local offer is fragmented
Valuable support sits across council teams, directories and VCSE organisations, but residents are still expected to find and join it together.
Prevention is difficult to prove
Councils need a joined-up view of emerging need, actions, handovers and outcomes across neighbourhoods and partners.
One connected system
Four layers of support. One resident journey.
Bridgit works alongside your existing services and VCSE partners. It helps people move to the right level of support earlier, and stay connected as their situation changes.
Managing well
Community support
- Local groups and networks
- Peer and social support
- Shared spaces and activities
The connected front door Council + VCSE + neighbourhood assets
LibrariesHealthCommunity groupsWarm spacesFood networksFaith groups
Residents do not need to know which organisation owns the answer. Bridgit helps the local system respond as one.
Staying well
Universal support
- Information and advice
- Self-help and digital inclusion
- Signposting and guidance
In crisis
Crisis support
- Urgent and emergency routes
- Safeguarding and protection
- Human intervention
Increasing risk
Targeted support
- Housing, money and work
- Children, families and young people
- Specialist and cohort support
First question→Clear guidance→Local action→Ongoing follow ups→Warm human handover
A typical resident journey
Meet Margaret. One question reveals a connected chain of need.
Margaret represents residents whose lives cross council departments and community services. Each issue is manageable today, but together they could quickly become statutory demand.
Before support
Margaret, 68
Cares for her husband, has fallen behind on household bills and is worried about a worsening repair in their rented home.
Margaret reaches a fragmented front door
- She does not know whether to begin with housing, adult social care, money advice or a community organisation.
- Council language and separate directories make it hard to understand what applies to her.
- She repeats the same story but nobody sees how the pressures connect.
- She waits, increasing the risk of debt, carer breakdown and an urgent housing problem.
Supported earlier
One conversation activates joined-up support
Practical help continues beyond the first conversation.
- She begins with one simple conversation by phone, web or WhatsApp.
- The coach understands her connected needs and explains the most useful first steps.
- She is guided to relevant council, VCSE and neighbourhood support, not handed another generic directory.
- Where a professional is needed, a consented warm handover carries the right context forward.
The difference: Margaret gets practical help before her situation becomes a crisis, while council teams see needs earlier and reserve specialist capacity for the people who need it most.
How Bridgit helps
Connect the whole local offer around one resident journey.
Bridgit connects trusted knowledge, neighbourhood assets and human teams into one continuing resident journey, from universal information to community help, targeted support and crisis response.
Imagine your best team member could guide residents around the clock without becoming the bottleneck. Bridgit turns their trusted knowledge into AI coaches, while your people stay in control of judgement, relationships and risk.
- 01
Open one front door
Residents begin by phone, WhatsApp, SMS, web, QR code or a fuller support app, whichever route is easiest for them.
- 02
Understand connected need
Coaches use plain language to recognise the whole situation, give useful early guidance and agree practical next steps.
- 03
Activate the local network
Connect people to council pathways, VCSE partners, community organisations, local groups and trusted neighbourhood places.
- 04
Keep the connection
Use follow ups, reminders and consented warm handovers so residents stay supported and human teams receive useful context.
Voice & web Plans & follow ups Insight & handover
The technology behind the service
One simple front door for residents. One operational view for councils.
Residents see a simple, approachable coaching service. Behind it, councils and partners can manage trusted content, referrals, handovers and the intelligence showing what people are trying to solve across a place.
Resident advice app
A locally branded desktop and mobile route into guidance, plans and neighbourhood support.
Inclusive access channels
Extend the same coach through telephone, web, messaging, QR codes and trusted partners.
Partner portal
Coordinate consented referrals, shared context and warm handovers across council and VCSE services.
Neighbourhood intelligence
See demand, pathway use, unmet need, engagement and outcomes by service and place.
The intelligence layer
See the pressure before it becomes a crisis.
Every conversation helps a resident now and creates a structured signal for the council. Bridgit shows what people are trying to solve, where they are sent, whether pathways work and where the local offer is falling short.
What residents need
See presenting issues, connected needs and changing demand by neighbourhood, cohort and channel.
Where people are connected
Understand which council, VCSE and community pathways are recommended, opened and followed.
Where pathways fail
Find dead ends, repeated searches, abandoned routes and handovers that are not completing.
Where unmet need is emerging
Spot recurring questions with no adequate local response and gaps that are becoming tomorrow’s demand.
Illustrative insight viewNeighbourhood demand
Live signalsWhat residents are trying to solveLast 30 days
Pathway healthWarm handovers completedWorking
Emerging gapEvening debt adviceReview
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Unmet need signal
Repeated requests are appearing where no suitable local pathway is currently available.
Questions your teams can answer: What demand is growing?Which referrals complete?Where do residents drop out?What support is missing?
Role-based reporting, consented handovers and aggregate insight help teams improve services without asking residents to repeat their story.
Low effort to start
A directory, the right sources and your people. That is enough to begin.
No rip-and-replace programme. We configure Bridgit around your existing offer, connect the people who steward it and prove value through one focused activation.
Share the directory
Give us the current service directory, pathway map or starting list of council and VCSE provision.
Point to trusted sources
Identify the approved information, policies, local content and safeguards the coaches should use.
Connect the right people
Bring together the council, neighbourhood and VCSE leads who know the offer and own handover routes.
Launch and learn
We build, train and deploy the service, then use live insight to improve pathways and demonstrate impact.
A clear commercial route
Start focused. Prove impact. Scale with confidence.
Indicative pricing from our current council offer, shaped finally around population, scope, channels and integration needs.
One-off cost to build, train, deploy and prove impact.
- Coach and pathway configuration
- Onboarding and training
- Launch support and measurement
Monthly from month five, based on population and scope.
- Hosting, support and updates
- Continuous optimisation
- Additional channels and integrations as needed
What a connected council front door changes
Earlier help for residents, less avoidable pressure for teams and stronger evidence for prevention, neighbourhood working and integrated commissioning.
Lower front door demand
Resolve routine questions, reduce repeat contact and give residents useful next steps before problems escalate.
More time for human work
Release staff from repetitive navigation and administration so they can focus on safeguarding, relationships and complex decisions.
An empowered VCSE network
Make trusted partners visible and reachable, with warmer routes into the local organisations best placed to help.
24/7 preventative support
Give residents useful guidance and follow ups outside office hours without creating another queue for teams to manage.
Neighbourhood intelligence
See needs, actions, engagement, handovers, service gaps and outcomes across places and communities.
A governable route to AI
Begin with approved knowledge, clear safeguards and a focused service problem, then scale when value and trust are proven.
Each conversation helps twice
Better support for people. Better intelligence for services.
A clear next step, wherever they begin
Residents get personalised guidance, local options and a route to real support without needing to understand council structures first.
A joined-up view of pressure and prevention
Council and partner teams see what people need, where demand is growing, which pathways work and where gaps need attention.
Evidence in practice
See what the model looks like in the real world.
Start with a delivery pattern that has worked, then shape the coaches, pathways and measures around your own service.
Birmingham: Brum Chat
A digital front door connected to neighbourhood support.
Brum Chat brings together personalised guidance across social care, housing, money, wellbeing, work and local services. Warm Welcome partners can promote support and use a portal to understand local engagement and impact.
One approachable resident journey, backed by council information and trusted community organisations. Explore Brum ChatPeterborough City Council
Local activation helped reach more unpaid carers.
Council leadership combined the digital service with frontline presentations, community champions, radio and accessible multilingual material.
A 10% increase in previously unidentified unpaid carers supported in a matter of months. Read the Peterborough storyPartner perspective
Hear how Bridgit strengthens, not replaces, local teams.
See how partnership turns council and community expertise into approachable resident support while preserving human time for the work that matters most.
Featured partner story Ali Mohammed
Derbyshire Carers Association
Press play to hear their experience of working with Bridgit.
Book a discovery call
Bring us one front door challenge. Leave with a practical starting point.
Book 30 minutes with Laura to map the resident journey, directory, trusted sources, partner routes and success measures for a focused council activation.