AI-Scribe reduces admin time by almost 50% in adult social care assessments – independent evaluation

An independent evaluation has found that Magic Notes, a generative AI tool, could significantly improve efficiency for social care staff, freeing up time for client-facing work and reducing reliance on costly agency staff.

Social care professionals often spend more than half their time on administrative tasks, such as case recording, documentation, IT work, and meetings, leaving limited time for direct interaction with clients.

Kent County Council (KCC) partnered with Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, Unity Insights and Beam, the creator of Magic Notes, an AI-powered tool that records, transcribes, and summarises conversations to test the technology in real-world care scenarios.

What was tested?

Members of the Kent County Council Adult Social Care Team tested Magic Notes over an 8-week period in May-June 2025. The main use cases were in care needs assessments and occupational therapy assessments.

Headline findings

• Staff reported improvements in the time spent writing up notes, with an average reduction of 2.7 hours per assessment (48%). This enabled them to complete their work within core hours more often, improving staff work-life balance.
• Supervisors reported that fewer amendments to reports were needed due to improved quality and consistency.
• While using Magic Notes, staff gave positive feedback on the quality of conversations they had with people drawing on care and support, with scores increasing from 6.8/10 to 9.1/10.
• The time taken to submit assessments reduced by 49% on average, going from five days to three days.

Richard Munn, Assistant Director West Kent; Adult Social Care and Health said:

“I’ve been delighted with the positive impact of Magic Notes. By freeing up valuable time for the workforce, Magic Notes allows our teams to concentrate on what truly matters – spending more time with people who draw on care and support. The feedback from staff has been outstanding, and it’s clear this approach not only boosts efficiency but also enhances the quality of care we provide for people in Kent. We are just getting started with Magic Notes and I look forward to seeing what the future brings.”

Seb Barker, co-founder of Beam, said:

“We developed Magic Notes because we saw first-hand from our own team of caseworkers, the need to free frontline staff from their desks and mountains of admin. AI gives us the opportunity to get practitioners back on the frontline, where they want to be, and where they do the most meaningful work. The evaluation findings are clear: local councils can use AI to save time while also delivering better quality care.”

Jenny Partridge, Innovation Manager at Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, said:

“Magic Notes has developed a tool that significantly improves both the quality and accuracy of care assessments, with this independent evaluation showing a very positive impact on adult social care. It is rare to find an innovation rated so highly by staff, but Magic Notes has managed it with their ambient voice technology and bespoke care assessment templates that significantly ease the administration burden for social care workers.”

What’s next?

Magic Notes has demonstrated strong potential to improve efficiency and save time in social care. Staff see the benefit of using Magic Notes and have asked for developments to cover more situations. Looking ahead, further research into workflow efficiency over a longer time period will improve the insights gained from using Magic Notes, and a detailed evaluation by the Kent team is planned for later in 2026.

Download evaluation here