Jackie, Head of Children and Adults Programme Management Office on how mobile working in Children and Adults Directorate is transforming the service.
What needed to be transformed and why?
The Children and Adults Directorate have used new technology to transform the way our front-line employees work with customers, which has also had the effect of improving our employees’ working lives and wellbeing.
Before transformation, consistent feedback from staff was the frustration they felt at having to undertake visits to customers without having the information they needed on hand. They had to complete paper forms and assessments with clients and then return to the office to input them into the case management system, as well as undertaking any follow up work. This duplication of work resulted in low morale and, in some cases, increased delays and a lower quality of work that staff wanted to provide.
Efficiency and modernisation are at the forefront of both the council’s transformation agenda and the health and care agenda. This made a strong case for introducing a solution to enable employees to deliver services in a more reliable, agile and efficient manner. Mobile working was seen as the key to achieving this. Not only would it significantly improve service delivery and stop the duplication of work, but would also realise a number of other benefits including meeting statutory timescales and enabling us to pay our providers promptly.
Who was involved in the transformation project?
We knew that the success of the project would hinge on the Children and Adults directorate and ICT working in partnership.
The concept, design and implementation were led by:
- Jackie Brown, Head of Children and Adults Programme Management Office
- Bob Wilde, the ICT Change Manager
- Adam Fielder, Technical Architect
Bob Wilde says: “this successful collaboration shows just how much we can achieve when we work together”.
What happened?
We discussed the options and undertook an investigation to find the best possible solution. We decided to procure Surface Pro tablets to enable frontline staff to deliver services from any location in a reliable, agile and efficient manner and enable the key benefits to be delivered. The aim was to reduce the process time for an assessment or a care plan from up to two weeks to around two to three hours.
We had an ambitious timescale for roll-out, with approval to go ahead in January 2018 and the training of staff in the new software in March.
We have now trained 400 frontline staff and the signs are positive that our aims are being achieved.
How have employees benefited from the change?
We asked a number of colleagues to pilot the new technology and it wasn’t long before they were singing its praises:
“Based on my experience using the Surface Pro, it streamlines processes and enables the user to utilise time more efficiently and effectively, whilst improving the ability to provide a better quality of service and customer experience. In real terms this means increased productivity, better quality output, less printing, a more effective way of working, increased flexibility, a reduction in stress, staff empowerment and the ability to go above and beyond to make a difference.”
