A consortium of seven Welsh local authorities is working in
partnership with a system supplier to develop a new social care
case management system.
The system will help the councils deliver joined-up working across
departments and meet requirements outlined in the Children's Act to
share childcare records across agencies.
GPs, social workers, mental health workers and the police will be
able to access the system, based on CareWorks' Raise product.
Ceredigion County Council went live with the system last week, and
the Bridgend, Blaenau Gwent, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey, Powys and
Torfaen county councils are expected to go live in the coming
months.
The system is built on Microsoft .net technology that will enable
applications to be accessed via intranets or the internet. The web
services technology will allow the system to link with existing
applications in a variety of agencies, said Michael Dolan, director
at CareWorks.
The Welsh Assembly provided funding to help seed the development of
the consortium, in which professionals from each authority came
together to map out the specification for the system requirements.
The Welsh Assembly then paid KPMG to research the market to see if
there were off-the-shelf products that could meet the
specifications.
Although no products fitted exactly, CareWorks agreed to develop
its Raise software to fit the councils' needs. "The aim is to use
that as a basis to change and enhance our own product," said Dolan.
"Councils had input on the project team and we will use it in other
systems in the UK, so other customers will benefit from this."
Tony Garthwaite, director of personal services at Bridgend County
Council, said that information management had been a source of
frustration for social services staff.
"We were not in the vanguard of sharing information," he said.
"However, Wales is increasingly different from England in local
government, and unitary authorities allow a more coherent
approach."
The system will also be able to switch languages between Welsh and
English, which required system interfaces and forms to be
redesigned.
Dave McGregor, assistant director of personal services at Bridgend
County Council, estimated that economies of scale and joint working
with the software company could save each council £50,000 in
initial capital outlay and £30,000 in ongoing costs.