Barnsley scheme for home carers
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council Home Care Service has taken on
a new mobile working system for its front-line home carers.
Carers are issued with a ‘smart phone’ that uses inTOUCH software to
download their specific service-user schedule and provides them with
contextual information and prompts for each visit. As changes like
abortive visits and staff sickness occur, they can be relayed
immediately to the carer and vice versa, enabling real-time
communication with co-ordination.
The system also opens channels of communication between the home
carer and care co-ordinator that have not previously been possible,
streamlining and improving delivery of care.
Both home carers and the unions were fully involved in the design and
development of the project from the early stages. As a result, the
project has full backing from the unions and buy-in from all parties
using the service.
The mobile working system is currently in phase three of its pilot
and is due to go live at Barnsley this month. inTOUCH was provided by
Twickenham software house TCO, which provided Barnsley’s main rostering
program. (TCO is now part of CACI (UK) Ltd, itself part of American CACI
International.)
Source: bjhc&im November 2006
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