The recent acquisition of CareFor by CareLineLive has resulted in a formidable portfolio of product solutions for local authorities looking to tender their home care, reablement and supported living/building-based services.
Both platforms have strong credentials which provide a comprehensive range of solutions for local authority providers.
CareLineLive has a history of working with NHS contracts including work with Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust which was shortlisted for a Laing Buisson award in 2022. By utilising CareLineLive within an innovative model of discharge the Trust has been able to release 60 hospital beds a day into home care and reablement services.
It’s contract with South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland hugely increased home care capacity without additional recruitment. Over a period of eight months, an additional 3,919 hours of capacity were created (a £73k value) with no additional recruitment or agency staff hires. The Trust has saved £35k a year on postage alone – more than enough to cover the costs of using CareLineLive.
CareLineLive is NHSx certified as a Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) assured supplier, in addition to accreditations such as NHS Data Security Protection (DSP) Toolkit, Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO 9001 and 27001.
CareForIT brings an impressive history of local authority contracts including a contract for 75+ care workers for Isle of Wight Council and a combined reablement and home care contract for some 130+ care workers and 160+ service users for Milton Keynes Council.
CareFor’s staff Richard Bedford and Pete Briggs have worked in the sector for 38 years collectively and have a significant network of contacts and established relationships. Pete has been bid managing tenders for care solutions to the UK public sector for approaching 20 years. CareFor’s Project Manager Howell Hughes is involved from the tender stage with focus on security and software functionality. He works with customers for the life of the project to successfully implement the CareFor rostering solution and CareFor eBrokerage with added focus on delivery of complex third party implementations such as ContrOCC and Azure Active Directory.
Claire Sillito, Training Manager demonstrates the CareForIT scheduling solution and provides on-call advice during the local authority trial stage. During the implementation phase, once the customer system has been configured, Claire provides Train the Trainer sessions to create customer-based super users. She ensures local authority customers have access to customer guides and training materials to ensure smooth additional in-house training and support.
Dynamic scheduling on cloud-hosted applications leading to greater efficiency and flexibility, including optimisation of travel time and staff resources whilst providing the huge benefit of real-time synchronisation of data between the office and the field
Supporting the mobile reablement and care in the community workforce (fully integrated apps for remote working, workflow management, real time updates)
Real time data on service delivery + alarms for delayed visits and medication, providing safeguarding benefits for service users and staff
Digital Care Plans and Medication Plans created in the scheduling system and delivered securely to care workers via their mobile app where they then provide updates
Efficient handling of referrals to the care service – supporting smoother and more efficient fulfilment of care packages through a comprehensive set of imports, exports and reports, combined with secure access to the customer’s data at all times
Support continued compliance requirements by structured care planning and monitoring of care delivery, with reporting on KPIs and by client care package
Support for the new CQC single assessment framework
Customisable terminology and dashboards
An integrated approach to managing care services, supporting the ICS initiative by integrating with social care systems, and empowering family members via portals
Financial outcomes by digital exports – gross pay, expenses, billing
Integration with third party software such as Sage, Xero, CM2000, social care systems and ContrOCC as well as generic CSV file exchange options
Compliance with NHS Data Security Protection (DSP) Toolkit, Cyber Essentials, ISO 9001 and 27001
UK-based secure hosting
UK help desk
CareForIT has additional, particular deep functionality in:
Automated rota optimisation – our AI-powered CAREBooster optimises resources to maximise visit capacity when assigning carers to clients each day. This can be geared towards maintaining continuity, minimising travel time or minimising the time to complete a set of bookings
Azure Active directory integration enabling SSO (Single Sign On)
Customisable eForms created within CareForIT Desktop scheduling system and accessed for completion by care workers using the integrated mobile apps
2-way messaging between office staff and care workers and between office staff (e.g. visit notes and feedback)
CareLineLive brings another range of options that could be crucial to public sector requirements:
NHSx Assured Supplier of Digital Social Care Records (DSCR) systems
GP Connect integration is in the development pipeline together with an API that will help inter-operability with other 3rd party systems
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) available with CareLineLive for an additional layer of login security
Customisable client observations created within CareLineLive and accessed for completion by care workers via the Carer Companion mobile app
Client assessments and customisable client forms created and updated within CareLineLive and published for care workers to view via the Carer Companion mobile app
CareLineLive’s Managing Director, Josh Hough said “In a highly competitive market the combined pedigrees of CareLineLive and CareFor will ultimately help to create one of the strongest all-in-one home care management platforms in Europe and positions both brands with considerable opportunities to improve software services for local authority customers.”
