A ROBOT bought by Southend Council to help out with social care cost in excess of £17,000, it has been revealed.

The robot, named Pepper, was designed by Japanese company, Softbanks and retails at £17,160 but the council is able to reclaim VAT, bringing the total outlay to about £15,000, the authority said.

The child-sized robot stands 120cm tall, can speak 12 languages, communicate with patients, and understand emotions, according to its makers. Pepper is kind, helpful and is currently the first robot with the ability to recognise principal human emotions and adapt his own behaviour to make independent decisions.

The robot can play videos, music, and sensory games that will be used to help dementia sufferers and children with complex disabilities.

A spokesman for Southend Council said: “The cost is £15,199. The £17,000 is including VAT which we get back. It is funded from our social care transformation budget. To put this in context, we spend about £40million a year on adult social care alone, so this is 0.04 per cent of that budget and an even smaller percentage of our overall budget. We believe the cost will be justified and more.”

The spokesman added: “Introducing robotics into local government and social care has been talked about for some time. While many trials and academic studies have taken place into how they can help services, Southend Council is leading the way as it is the first local authority to buy and use ‘Pepper’ under an academic licence – a licence usually used by schools, universities and colleges, which requires that we include an element of research and analysis in our use of the robot.

“This enables us to use Pepper, and measure his impact, at an affordable cost.”

The council plans to introduce the robot to schoolchildren to encourage youngsters to take up robotics, technology and science studies.

The Japanese already use a nursing robot, Robear, in nursing homes.

They put patients into their beds, and hoist them out from their beds and into their wheelchairs.

Southend Council says it has no plans yet to introduce Robear for social care services in the borough.