July 12, 2010
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.