The charity and the challenge
Greenwich Carers Centre exists to improve the lives of carers in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and beyond. Its vision is to make Greenwich "a borough in which every unpaid carer feels respected, held, valued, heard, empowered, included and supported". From complex emotional and practical support to a full range of projects, programmes, and services that provide safe spaces for connection and wellbeing, its services put that vision into practice. The charity has received local and national recognition, including Carers UK's Outstanding Carer Service 2026 award.
The partnership began when a previous Trustee of the charity introduced 4REAL's founder, Davidson, to Stuart, the CEO of Greenwich Carers Centre. The Trustee had previously worked with Davidson on a community food project supporting vulnerable South London residents. A Zoom call and an in-person meeting over fruit salad at the Centre's homely café led to a jackpot question: how could AI amplify the charity's work? The team knew about AI but wanted to understand where it could be most useful. They chose to work with 4REAL to explore that opportunity.
The approach: four phases over 15 weeks
Over 15 weeks, 4REAL worked with Greenwich Carers Centre through four phases to answer the question, "How could AI amplify the charity's work?":
4GROUND: Agree where AI can help
4REAL began with a questionnaire to understand the Centre's technology use. The responses showed that tools such as Copilot and ChatGPT were being used like search engines, while the team wanted to use AI more effectively. A whole-team mini workshop then explored their beliefs about AI and set a shared priority: use it to "speed up every day admin" to free up more time to support unpaid carers.
4FEEL: Understand the work before designing the solution
Shadowing sessions explored how the Centre worked day to day. The charity was already reviewing its business processes and streamlining its operations, with clearer responsibilities helping the team work together to support carers better. The AI project therefore needed to complement an existing transformation, rather than treat AI as the starting point.
Within that work, 4REAL identified the opportunity to improve how social impact data is captured, analysed and reported.
4MULATE: Develop Heart Lite
The research informed the development of Heart Lite, an AI-enabled analytics platform that plugs into Greenwich Carers Centre's live social impact data. The platform enables more autonomous data collection, analysis and reporting. 4REAL securely developed the beta version following the ISO 27001 development framework, then used feedback from the Centre and local authorities to finalise the tool.
4FRONT: Prepare for adoption and measurement
Heart Lite is scheduled for a soft launch to the wider Greenwich Carers Centre team in January 2027. 4REAL will support adoption and technology management, and the platform's Social Return on Investment (SROI) will be monitored throughout 2027. The next phase will move the project from development into use and assess its impact.
Projected impact: £118,821 in annual social value
Heart Lite is projected to unlock £118,821 per year in additional social value in the Royal Borough of Greenwich across five areas. This is a forecast, not a measured outcome: the wider-team launch is scheduled for January 2027, with SROI monitoring planned throughout that year. The anticipated benefits are:
Productivity gains - e.g., freeing up staff time to support other business activities.
Cost savings - e.g., eliminating the need to record social impact data manually and reducing the time spent developing reports.
Revenue impact - e.g., creating more time for business strategy and revenue-generating activities.
Risk reduction - e.g., reducing the risk of errors in social impact data.
Strategic and innovation value - e.g., using the platform's AI feature to analyse data and inform strategy and innovation.
The purpose is not simply faster administration. It is to give Greenwich Carers Centre more capacity to focus on the people it serves. Heart Lite's projected value will be tested through adoption and monitoring in 2027, with the ultimate aim of improving carers' lives across the borough.