Project Overview
Caring Connect is a prototype mobile app developed by Metadeck during an internal Tech for Good hack day, inspired by a very real and personal problem: helping parents of children with special needs understand and manage the complexities of Direct Payments.
For parents receiving Direct Payments, the shift from traditional care systems to self-managed support effectively turns them into employers – responsible for PAYE, holidays, contracts, and employment law. The official documentation is long, legalistic, and hard to interpret. Caring Connect was designed to help bridge that gap.
Why It Matters
This project is deeply personal for our founder, Declan, whose own son receives Direct Payments. Despite running a business and being familiar with payroll systems, the learning curve was steep – and the emotional load even heavier.
“Even with all my experience, I still pay someone else to run our payroll. The idea that parents without support have to manage this – while also raising a child with complex needs – is just not okay.”
Through conversations with other parents, the idea for Caring Connect was born: could we use AI to give parents better access to the knowledge they need, in language they can actually understand?
The Challenge
Parents managing Direct Payments often face:
- Complex, unapproachable documentation
- A lack of easy access to qualified carers with relevant experience
- Confusion around legal obligations and entitlements (PAYE, holidays, contracts)
- Reliance on informal support via Facebook groups, with no guarantee of accuracy
Our Solution
What began as a plan to build a small AI tool quickly evolved into a working prototype with two key features:
1. Carer Discovery Interface
- A user-friendly search flow designed for parents to find carers with relevant experience
- Carers (in the future, vetted by health trusts) can specify conditions they are experienced with – e.g., ASD, physical lifting, communication support
- Parents can search and filter by needs, building confidence in care matches for their children
2. AI-Powered Support Chat
- A conversational assistant trained on government and health trust PDFs related to Direct Payments
- Parents can ask free-form questions like:
- “Can I employ a family member?”
- “How much paid leave should I give my carer?”
- “What happens if my carer is off sick?”
- The AI replies in plain English, and provides source document links for verification
The Build
- Mobile App Frontend with search, filters, and AI chat interface
- AI Integration trained on real, difficult-to-parse PDFs
- Built during a Metadeck hack day – with the team voluntarily working through the weekend to push the idea further
What We’re Proud Of
- A prototype built from lived experience
- A team that cared enough to go beyond the brief – because they believed in the impact
- Designing for trust, clarity, and dignity in an area where parents are often overwhelmed
- Demonstrating how even a prototype can lead to meaningful change if picked up by health organisations
What’s Next
Caring Connect is currently being presented as a proof of concept, with hopes of evolving into a real support platform. The prototype has already shown that tech doesn’t have to be complicated to be helpful – it just needs to be built with empathy, and in service of real people.
Want to build something meaningful using AI or mobile technology?
We’d love to hear your story. At Metadeck, we believe AI is at its most powerful when it’s embedded into thoughtful, human-led design – not treated as a gimmick. We’ve seen firsthand how AI can simplify complexity, support decision-making, and empower real people in real-world situations.
If you’re exploring how AI or mobile apps could help you do something good, impactful, or transformative – get in touch. We’d love to help make it happen.