Background

The launch of the Department for Education’s Social Care Innovation Programme has significantly influenced the way that local authorities use their case management solution. Many now see forms and pathway configuration as a means to support their vision of how they would like social workers to practice.

A good case management system will support a council’s chosen model of social work practice, not hinder it, and should guide practitioners in recording interventions aligned with that model and enable them to see the progress of the child and family through the system.

Elia & Signs of Safety

In 2017, Liquidlogic embarked on a collaborative partnership with Elia (home of the Signs of Safety approach), to deliver a set of forms and workflow to customers who are using Signs of Safety. Elia is the custodian of the forms meaning that as the practice model evolves, the forms and workflows are updated with Elia’s direct input.

How Does it Work?

North Tyneside Council took the decision to embed the Signs of Safety forms and workflows as part of their Liquidlogic case management system in 2018. Nik Flavell, Senior Manager, Quality Assurance at North Tyneside Council comments:

"We elected to embed Signs of Safety into our Liquidlogic case management system and go-live with both simultaneously. We were confident that the Signs of Safety model would further improve social work practice, reduce time recording and fully support us to work in partnership with children and families. To date, we are delighted with the results."

A Forum for Discussion

Speaking about the Liquidlogic Signs of Safety User Group, Nik Flavell goes on to say:

"The group is open to Liquidlogic customers who have officially contracted to using Elia’s forms. Feedback from all customers takes place and there is a real commitment to ensuring continuous improvement for the customer base. In order to test out new ideas, two councils attending the group act as “Learning Labs” for Elia to collaborate with. One of those Learning Labs is North Tyneside Council.

Ultimately, this means that the North Tyneside trial changes to the solution in practice with oversight from Elia. We then feed any outcomes back to the rest of the Signs of Safety user base. Once agreed these are specified for Liquidlogic to incorporate into the next forms release for all the other authorities to benefit from."

Working in Partnership

Andrew Turnell, founding CEO of Elia and Signs of Safety co-creator has been involved in the development of the Signs of Safety forms and workflows and the North Tyneside development work throughout, concludes:

"Implementing Signs of Safety at North Tyneside Council has facilitated strong partnership working, not only with the council and Liquidlogic, but also from a wider range of local authorities who are using the model via “Learning Lab” feedback. The learning lab process ensures that the Signs of Safety forms are informed and refined by practitioners for practitioners."

Click here to download the North Tyneside Council Signs of Safety case study.

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