Leicestershire gets portal for personalised care

County and Leicester city council team up to provide online channel for social care recipients

Leicestershire county council and Leicester city council have set up an online marketplace for personalised social care. They have launched choosemysupport.org.uk as part of the agenda to give social care recipients more control over which services they receive.

Registered users are able to search for services from approved providers and make payments with debit cards. Social care recipients can use the service to spend the budgets provided to them by the councils, and the system is also open to others who wish to obtain relevant products and services.

A spokeswoman told GGC that the system, which was launched at the end of last week, currently has about 250 registered users and 200 providers and offers details of 400 services. The fact that it is open to people funding their own care makes it difficult to project the future level of usage.

The system uses Assist, an online portal developed by System Associates to support the personal care agenda. This is based on systems developed by the company over a number of years to support various public service functions.

It has a content management system that enables users to search for services, providers to post advertisements, and it can be integrated with management and finance systems. It also includes functions to request a quote or a call back, a star rating system for services which is visible to all users and a comment facility, although the latter is only visible to the service providers and local authorities.

Tony Dailide, assistant director, adults and communities department at Leicestershire county council, said: “We have taken advantage of the regional funding from Regional Efficiency and Improvement Programme (REIP), which has enabled us to create a really cost effective solution that will empower adults looking for social care support and service in Leicestershire.”