Minutes

2        PROCUREMENT OF A CASE MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR ADULTS, CHILDREN AND FAMILIES - The Directors: Adults and Health, Children and Families, and Governance and Communities submitted a joint report seeking approval to undertake a procurement exercise to purchase a case management and information system for Adults, Children and Families.

CareFirst was the I.T. System used to support the council in delivering its social care statutory duties, case management and financial income and payments related to social care across Children’s & Adult Services. It had been in operation since 2006. The vendor of the application advised that it would no longer be developing the platform, save for statutory driven changes, given the launch of their new cloud-based system.

Capita One was the I.T. System used to support the council in delivering its educational related statutory duties. The system had been in place since 1998 and developed over time but the technology it used was now becoming outdated and market testing had suggested that there were better systems available that could provide a single view of a child, family, or vulnerable adult, improving the care and support provided to North Lincolnshire children and adults.

The current systems were at risk of progressively reduced performance and there were no guarantees they would be able to comply with future statutory changes placing council services and the needs of vulnerable children, families, and adults at risk.

The council had the opportunity to integrate a number of information management systems to best meet the needs of vulnerable adults, children, families and carers whilst enabling the most efficient professional working practice. Details of the opportunities were listed at 2.4 of the report.

To enable re-procurement options to be explored, concluded and an implementation programme of this size completed, the current CareFirst contract had been extended to 31st March 2024 and the current Capita One contract was expected to expire by the 31st March 2027.

It was proposed that the replacement of CareFirst and Capita One would be procured with options to procure other applications which would enable the fewest best systems across the work with adults, children and families.

This procurement exercise would enable a phased approach with the priority elements implemented first with additional technologies following on to ensure alignment with available resources.

Resolved – That the procurement of an integrated case management and information system for Adults, Children and Families be approved.