Mobile Technologies Delivering 21st Century Social Care

With a diverse and dispersed range of clients, sites and services, there are significant gains for local authorities that adopt mobile computing solutions.  Dave Ashcroft, project manager, explains North Lanarkshire Council’s innovative use of mobile technology.

In recent years there has been a complete transformation in the way that the public sector provides services through the adoption of a range of modern technologies.  Mobile technologies for instance help streamline and improve public sector services by significantly improving communication.  As such many local authorities plan to adopt mobile working in order to support transformation and efficiency. 

Widely regarded as a pioneering local authority, where modernisation of services is high on the agenda, North Lanarkshire Council has paved the way in terms of embracing mobile technologies.  With a population of 323,780 and holding the status of the fourth largest unitary authority in Scotland, the council is committed to improving services for its citizens.

North Lanarkshire Council has an exemplary record when it comes to adult social work, and as such we continue to strive for further progression.  Aware of the opportunities that mobile working presents, we wanted to reap the benefits, particularly in terms of improving workflows, cutting travel time for the team and supporting flexible working. 

Due to the nature of the role, the majority of social work takes place in disparate locations.  Therefore, in order to be effective, social workers require support when they are offsite working in clients’ homes, their own home, or even other public sector facilities such as hospitals or GP surgeries.  Social workers are a mobile workforce and consequently the tools they are equipped with should reflect this.

Overcoming issues
Having identified the need to streamline the practice of the social care workforce in terms of Single Shared Assessments (SSA), we needed to find a more efficient way to deliver the service. 

The SSA process is highly complex and demands a significant investment of time.  Historically it was heavily paper-based and required staff to document information while in the service users’ home.  They would then be required to return to the office and enter the information into the social work system mySWIS.  This paper based process required multiple visits to the office to obtain service users’ details and file assessments, resulting in additional travel and data duplication.

The challenge that North Lanarkshire Council faced was to update mySWIS either at point of contact, or as soon after the assessment had been completed, whilst allowing the social worker to perform the assessment in exactly the same manner.

A further difficulty was successfully completing the end to end process in a timely manner.  For this reason, the flexibility of the solution was crucial.  We needed a solution that was not intrusive to the social carers; one that would enable them to follow the same process, but effectively allow faster completion.

The ultimate aim was to help social care workers spend more time with the service users, and complete a greater number of assessments; both of which we differentiated as vital steps towards modernising the entire SSA process.{mospagebreak}

Innovative approach
We selected a future-proof and scaleable solution to ensure that the council has full control and ownership, from Integral Mobile Data (IMD), part of the OLM Group. Underpinned by Integral mForms®, the solution allows full SSAs to be completed by staff at the council and partner agencies (including the NHS) whilst in the service users’ home or hospital ward.  Undoubtedly it has played a key role in improving adult care services across North Lanarkshire.  

Social workers now send information gathered during the assessment, at the touch of a button, directly into the office-based centre.  This allows the assessment to enter the system for immediate action. 

Furthermore it has been possible to enhance the service to users as the solution is more responsive to needs. For instance, the old system was heavily paper based, it offered little flexibility in terms of call and visit scheduling, and required staff to spend a significant amount of time in the office which saw delays in updating assessment information.

Following implementation the amount of time that social care workers spend in the office has reduced.  The new mobile assessment process involves the assessor travelling to the service user’s home, completing the assessment and recording information on a tablet PC.  Social care workers then synchronise the assessment with mySWIS at the touch of a button and travel to the next service user’s home. 

These time savings have enabled the provision of homecare services to be initiated at shorter intervals, while increasing the time front-line staff spend with the service users.  There has also been a decrease in the assessment waiting time. 

Being able to use the tablet anywhere in the community or hospital enables our team to be more flexible and efficient, cutting down the workload on return to the office, as it can now be completed at point of contact. 

The accuracy, speed and security of information has certainly developed.  In turn this has led to improvements in the quality and speed of information that is shared between partner agencies.

Unique offering
This project is an excellent example of how North Lanarkshire Council places service users at the heart of its service delivery.  We believe that this project is the first of its kind in the UK and we are certainly taking this technology further than any other local authority. 

And yet the success has not stopped there. North Lanarkshire Council has also received several public sector awards, including runner-up status in the prestigious Local Government IT Excellence Awards 2007, and a commendation in the Good Communication Awards.  These achievements highlight the degree of innovation that North Lanarkshire Council has and how it has successfully exploited the benefits of mobile technology. 

We have certainly transformed the performance of adult social care in North Lanarkshire Council to deliver best-value public services, and there are plenty of opportunities for further expansion.