Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council aims to boost efficiencies with flexible adult social care case management system

CareWorks, a leading provider of social care software to the public sector, today announced that Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council has become the latest customer to sign up for its new Adults case management system, CareDirector. Stockton announced that CareWorks was awarded the contract following a rigorous evaluation process where CareDirector outperformed rival solutions on system functionality, cost and ease of use. CareDirector is replacing OLM’s CareFirst information system which has been in place since 1997.

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council has a population of almost 190,000 spread across the main urban conurbations of Stockton, Billingham, Yarm, Thornaby, and Eagglescliffe.

In 2009 the Council made a decision to explore the market for a new adult social care system via an open tender route. Stockton required an Adults case management system that met all Government compliance requirements for the electronic social care record and was capable of meeting its future needs for self- directed-support and personalisation. The competitive evaluation team included social care practitioners, managers and business support staff from Adults operational services, ICT, performance, management information, internal audit, legal and procurement. The evaluation team scored each bid and supplier presentation and found CareDirector to be the most user-friendly system overall. During evaluation trials, CareDirector was found to significantly simplify the processes required from a new electronic system and greatly improve functionality on the existing case management system.

The Council’s Head of Service for Adult Operational Services Mr. Sean McEneany said: “Adult Social Care requires a highly skilled and motivated workforce. By investing in a new Adults case management system that not only meets government requirements, but ensures social workers have access to efficient and effective electronic tools, we are demonstrating our commitment to modernising our services and improving outcomes for all our clients in receipt of adults services. CareDirector was evaluated as the system best suited to meet Stockton’s requirements and we are pleased to be working in partnership with CareWorks to ensure a smooth transition to the new system.”

Tim Whitfield Adult Services ICT Project Manager said: “We are pleased to develop our existing business relationship with CareWorks and have confidence that CareDirector will provide a functionally rich electronic case management system to help us drive and deliver the personalisation agenda in adult social care services. Investing in this new, cutting edge system will ensure that our social workers have access to efficient and effective electronic tools that can drive forward our performance targets and increase efficiencies. CareDirector will support a broad range of Adult Social Care teams and will offer responsive and more personalised services to Stockton’s adult social care users”.

The project began in early 2010 and is expected to be completed by Spring/Summer 2011. The Council is now working to implement CareDirector and is in the process of migrating data from the existing adult social care case management system with a comprehensive training plan being developed for almost 275 staff.

Charteris Plc and CareWorks announce partnership agreement for social care transformation

> Develop the customer-centric behaviours and culture that will ensure the success of your social care transformation projects
> Deliver personalised and efficient services in the most direct and agile way

Charteris Plc today announced a partnership agreement with social care software specialist CareWorks to offer and deliver CareDirector, a multi-channel and customer-centric social care solution for social care transformation projects.

Under the agreement, Charteris will deliver CareDirector as best-of-breed social care case management system for the delivery of personalised services and self-directed support. CareDirector is a social care case management system that enables the public to direct their own social care in the way that suits them best.

In the way that personalisation and self-directed support empowers people to be in control of their own social care needs, so the CareWorks & Charteris vision puts the citizen needs at the heart of the supporting information systems.

Using their unique customer-centric approach, CareWorks and Charteris can work with local authorities:

> To help them develop the customer-centric behaviours and culture that will ensure the success of their social care transformation projects

> To help them deliver personalised and efficient services in the most direct and agile way

Charteris has built considerable experience in the delivery of social care case management systems for adult and children’s services. Their expertise in deploying solutions built on Microsoft technologies will ensure that CareDirector fits the requirements of each individual local authority and their citizens.

Announcing the partnership, Michael Dolan said: “We are very pleased to be working with Charteris. Through their proven expertise in helping public sector organisations meet their customers’ needs, we see them as a key partner to apply customer centricity in adult social care and help local authorities save money”.

Stephen Hewett, Head of Government Practice at Charteris added: “I am delighted that we are now partnering with CareWorks, who we see as a good fit due to their customer centric philosophy. We believe the partnership will strengthen our ability to deliver true customer-centric outcomes for customers of local authorities.”

“New Approaches to Delivering Efficiencies” – 9^th July 2010, Manchester
REGISTER NOW
The partnership will be officially launched at the “New Approaches to Delivering Efficiencies” conference hosted by Charteris in Manchester on Friday 9th July.  At this event Michael Dolan will explain how technology can help deliver efficiencies in Adult Services.
Please click here for more information about the conference and to register for this event.

About Charteris
Charteris delivers greater customer focus and business efficiency through seamless business and IT consulting. Their unique blend of ‘business specialists who speak IT and IT experts who think business’ ensures that clients receive seamless solutions that deliver competitive edge. Leading public and private sector organisations draw on their deep experience to help them improve performance and reduce costs. Services include Customer Centric Business Change, Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft technologies.

Web: www.charteris.com
Tel: 020 7600 9199 or email charlotte.poskitt@charteris.com for further information

New full time positions are now available:

• Automated Test Engineer
• Sales Engineer

To apply, please send your CV to careers@careworks.ie

- CareDirector certified to highest accessibility standards by Shaw Trust
- CareDirector citizen portal can be accessed by people of all abilities

The CareDirector citizen portal has achieved the coveted Shaw Trust Accessible Plus (A+) rating. This is the highest possible accreditation for accessibility and means that our citizen solution is inclusive and user-friendly for people with disabilities.

The CareDirector self-directed support portal is designed to maximise the opportunity for members of the public to “self-serve” their differing social care needs online in a user-friendly, efficient and effective manner.

Using CareDirector, social services can provide self-directed support via the web to everyone regardless of ability. It also ensures that they comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

The accessibility award check was carried out by the Shaw Trust Web Accreditation team in May 2010 and is endorsed by the Guild of Accessible Web Designers. The accreditation process combined a full technical audit and direct testing by disabled web users.

Michael Dolan, Managing Director at CareWorks said: ‘Our citizen access solutions need to be accessible so that people of all abilities can use them. That’s why getting the highest possible rating for accessibility was important to us. Our customers now have the confidence that CareDirector can fit their citizens of all abilities’.

Cam Nicholl, Sales and Service Development Manager at Shaw Trust, said: “Shaw Trust is delighted that CareWorks has achieved this accreditation. Over 60 hours of testing by our team of people with disabilities took place, as well as automated and technical testing. CareWorks showed total commitment to making sure that its site was accessible, thereby ensuring a good customer experience for as many people as possible.”

- Download the CareDirector citizen portal demonstration

About Shaw Trust
Shaw Trust is the UK’s largest third sector provider of employment services for disabled and disadvantaged people. During its 25+ years as a registered charity, the organisation has supported almost 370,000 people to change their lives through work and greater independence. Shaw Trust is one of the leading providers of Web Accessibility Services in the UK. Look up www.webaccess4all.org.uk or alternatively, email cam.nicholl@shaw-trust.org.uk for further information.

We are pleased to announce that CareWorks has achieved ContactPoint Instance Accreditation for its social care case management system in partnership with Bury Council.

This accreditation means that care professionals can access ContactPoint seamlessly through their social care case management system. They can search for details of children they are working with and find out instantly who else is working with the same child or young person. Changes to critical basic children data on the CareWorks system are updated automatically on ContactPoint, removing the need to enter data twice.

Bury Council is an early adopter of ContactPoint and has sponsored the program to make our social care software link up effectively. The Council is now beginning a pilot rollout to a small number of children’s social care practitioners. A wider 18-month/two-year rollout programme will then see ContactPoint delivered to workers in schools, youth support services, health organisations and voluntary services.

ContactPoint is a secure computer-based resource set up by the Department for Children, School and Families (DCSF). It provides a quick way for those working with children and young people to find out who else is working with the same child or young person. This makes it easier to deliver more co-ordinated support and, through reducing the amount of time required for practitioners to establish who else is working with a child, provides workers with more time to deliver valuable services and improve children’s outcomes.

CareWorks invites you to attend the annual Microsoft Worldwide Government Solutions Forum to be held on 19-20th May. This year the Forum visits the beautiful World Heritage site of Bergen in Norway.

The event examines the new challenges that the current economic climate brings to delivering effective citizen services. Citizens are expecting a higher standard of service from their local and regional governments; but budgets are tighter than ever and fiscal and regulatory scrutiny is increasing. In social care, we are very familiar with those challenges in meeting the needs of an ageing population through citizen self-service and self-directed support.

The event also showcases solutions and the local and regional governments like Bergen in Norway and CareWorks customer Medway Council in UK, who are delivering real benefits to their citizens through the innovative use of technology.

CareWorks will present its social care management system, CareDirector,which enables citizens to direct their own support. As an invitation-only forum, the event will bring together senior delegates from across the local and regional government community and include presentations from internationally respected experts worldwide.

We hope to see you there.

More information about the Microsoft Worldwide Government Solutions Forum
Please call us if you are interested to attend – Tel: 02890 327 329

CareWorks, a specialist provider of social care information systems, and CIBER UK, a leading global IT services and system integration provider, announced a partnership to deliver CareDirector, the flexible social care platform that empowers the public to take control of their lives.

As Microsoft Gold Partners and Citizen Service Platform Partners, CareWorks and CIBER offer a unique and reliable combination of skills, expertise and technology that local authorities can draw upon to deliver their Adult social care transformation projects.

CareWorks is a social care specialist with 13 years experience and 71 local authority customers and unrivalled understanding of the revolution taking place in the delivery and management of social care.

CareWorks’ approach moves local authorities away from the proprietary systems that have traditionally been used in social care management, to a solution that is built on the industry standard customer service platform, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The result is CareDirector, a more flexible and familiar information system that can be quickly adapted to changing social care demands.

CIBER UK has considerable experience in delivering solutions to the public sector built on the complete range of Microsoft technologies including Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In partnership with Microsoft, they are helping local authorities collaborate and manage relationships effectively with citizens, partners and customers to meet the needs of the Transformation Agenda and beyond.

CIBER has become one of the most highly certified Gold Partners with accreditations in seven competencies, ensuring that local authorities derive maximum advantage both from individual Microsoft technologies, and from their effective integration with each other, as well as with third party systems and environments.

Join CareWorks at the BIG EVENT on 16 March in Liverpool. The BIG EVENT is the largest conference on personalisation and self-directed support. As one of the main sponsors, we will be showcasing how CareDirector enables voluntary organisations to deliver efficient services under the self-directed care model.

Did you know that IT can help you:
> Demonstrate the outcomes you deliver to your clients and funders
> Deliver personalised services to individual budget holders
> Deliver better customer service
> Increase staff productivity and reduce costs

Find out more by visiting CareWorks at the BIG EVENT.

Attend our social care workshop “Developing IT systems to support personalised services” at 11am in Zone 10
You will learn how industry-standard customer service technology can help you perform better and deliver efficient services under the self-directed care model

Meet with one of our social care IT specialists at stand 92
Tami, Joe, Brendan and the team will be happy to show you how you can improve, adapt and compete and discuss the most recent advancements of our flexible social care platform CareDirector to suit your needs

Pick up a chocolate or two!
Don’t forget to stop by and enjoy a delicious treat with our team

CareWorks is the only social care software specialist to offer an IT solution for personalisation built on an industry-standard customer service platform from Microsoft.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Liverpool.

For more information about the BIG EVENT, please visit: www.in-control.org.uk/bigevent

CareWorks is pleased to announce that, following a detailed review and assessment of CareDirector by the Department for Children, Schools and Families working with Wakefield Council, we have achieved compliance with the DCSF’s ICS phase 1C “must-have” specification.

CareDirector for Children makes it easier for social workers to identify the most relevant information to keep children safe. Users get an intuitive, easy-to-use, powerful system that comes with all of the ICS processes, documents, workflows, alerts and reports. Additionally, all of these can be easily adapted to reflect local business needs.

CareWorks has taken a different approach, moving away from the custom social care applications that have traditionally been used in Children’s Services, to one built on an industry-standard customer service platform. The result is a higher quality, more flexible system that is easier to use and to tailor to support locally-led practices.

Geraldine Murphy, Product Manager, said: “With CareDirector we are able to offer a more usable and more flexible solution that gives social workers more time to spend with children and their families and puts them in control to reshape their local Integrated Children’s System.”

CareWorks is offering local authorities a trial of CareDirector from only £2,500 per month for up to six months to help them validate their plans before remodelling local children social work practices. The trial includes testing, prototyping and development of CareDirector to support local ICS transformation strategies and inform a business case to switch to CareDirector.

• View the product demo
• Find out more about the CareDirector Trial Offer
• Read our product brochure

Here’s your opportunity to unleash the potential of personalisation with familiar and proven technology that works the way you do and empowers people to take control of their lives. We are offering you a trial of CareDirector for up to six months so your organisation can conduct pilot testing, prototyping and solution development to support your personalisation strategy and inform your business case for IT investment.

• Enable the public to be in control of their own support needs with the CareDirector citizen portal
• Give social workers the power to make a difference with the CareDirector case management system
• Measure the efficiencies achieved during your trial with the CareDirector performance module
• Build an evidence-based business case for IT investment with reduced financial commitment
• Ensure that local service users and staff are satisfied with your personalisation strategy
• Demonstrate how technology accommodates cultural change for citizens and social workers
• No hardware investment required

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• Read the CareDirector trial information sheet

• Take a look at CareDirector for Adults

• Make an enquiry