During March Buckinghamshire County Council
(BCC) became one of the growing number of Local Authorities to
purchase CM2000's CallConfirmLive! Electronic Monitoring
system.
For BCC like many Local Authorities the drivers for introducing
a monitoring system were clear.
- Cost savings on admini-stration and reduced potential for
errors by replacing manual timesheets with electronic logging
- Alert providers that a carer is potentially at risk because of
an over-extended or over-late visit.
- Alert providers that a high risk and/or time-critical visit
hasn't happened.
- Enable quality, performance and reliability monitoring of the
domiciliary care services being provided.
- Provide data that can be used to generate and support invoices
from external providers.
However, the decision to
use Electronic Monitoring was not an easy one. With ever increasing
demands on the limited resources available for Home Care and the
need to ensure 'Best Value' it was felt that demonstrating cost
effectiveness was critical and so Alan Mordue, an independent
Business Consultant, was drafted in to establish a clear business
case. It was hoped that the Business Case would not only help BCC
make an informed decision, but the subsequent paper would help
other Local Authorities going through a similar process.
Alan notes, "It became clear during the development of a
business case for BCC, that demonstrating the cost effective-ness
of an Electronic Monitoring system is a major hindrance to their
deployment in other authorities, despite the significant
re-assurances to the quality of care that can be provided. The
nature of Electronic Monitoring systems is such that they need to
be in place to provide the figures to justify their existence!"
Developing the business case involved a survey of existing
provision, in order to establish the approximate costs of putting
in and running a system. Seventeen other Local Authorities were
then identified as having implemented or piloted Electronic
Monitoring and a questionnaire sent out to them to explore the
benefits of running a system.
The research covered; operating environment (including staff
attitudes and implications for staff safety), operating costs,
financial benefits gained, other benefits gained such as improved
service quality and any other efficiencies gained. The findings of
the research were then analysed, resulting in a list of potential
financial and service benefits. The consequences of not proceeding
with implementation of Electronic Monitoring were also clearly
identified. These included:
- Invoicing could suffer from poor auditability and probity.
- The Authority may be paying inflated invoices.
- Providers will be unable to locate or contact carers
rapidly.
- Providers may be unable to fulfil an adequate duty of care to
domiciliary carers (e.g. lone workers).
- Providers will be unable to monitor high risk and/or
time-critical visits.
- There is a potential negative impact on purchasing
budgets.
Alan concludes his paper by stating, "In BCC, as a result of the
work put in to identify and quantify the benefits, a clear case to
proceed with Electronic Moni-toring has been made. When the system
is implemented, the council is very likely to save money, remove
vulnerabilities and make the home care system more auditable and
accountable. The health and safety of carers working alone will be
improved - if they are too late leaving or arriving, an alert will
trigger a search for them. Finally, and most importantly, service
users will benefit because the timing and amount of care being
delivered will be automatically monitored and the Duty Team can
proactively deal with problems."
A summary of Alan Mordue's Paper, 'Developing a business case
for the electronic capture of home care visit times', published by
CM2000 - Contact Simon Mallett or Polly Bastin on 0121 308 3010 or
info@cm2000.co.uk for your free copy.