Care Network

What is the ‘Care Network'?
How does the Care Network use ICT?
What difference has ICT made?
What was learnt?
Want to find out more?

What is the ‘Care Network'?  

Care Network is a small organisation that provides support to good neighbour schemes, village help, lunch clubs, mobile wardens and social car schemes. It also runs the Welcome Home from Hospital scheme.

The Care Network received ICT support from a local Circuit Rider.

How does the Care Network use ICT? 

Marion Bailey, the Care Network coordinator and the Cambridgeshire Circuit Rider Project CCRP initially joined forces to help the Care Network make the transition of moving from a model in which they provide different services in different areas to a model where they provided all their services to all areas. This meant introducing the sharing of data across districts, shared calendars, sharing good practices, raising problems to see if other schemes had already found solutions, etc. They also wanted a shared “notice board” for the 70 or so small good neighbour schemes to communicate with each other which would enable Care Network to become alerted quickly to the concerns of the small schemes, and to provide a more effective support service.

Marion was also keen to improve internal communication as currently staff were becoming swamped with emails and found it impossible to read and prioritise them all. They agreed that a private shared web-based solution could be the best solution, with shared calendars, notice boards, and sectioned private forums.

The conversion of the Comberton office to an ADSL based broadband was carried out first, and was immediately advantageous. By using a wireless router and purchasing two wireless enabled laptops for them, the two workers from the new secondary project could become part of the Comberton office network, and share the Internet connection, whenever they were in the office.

Other solutions to improve the efficiency of the organisation were also discussed including remote offsite data backup and use of VOIP telephone systems. “RealVNC” was installed to enable Care Network staff to securely work on their office based computers from home.

What difference has ICT made? 

The transfer of the Comberton office onto a broadband Internet connection allowed the shared calendar and notice board to be implemented, and enabled the two workers at this office to share network resources by wireless connection. This was particularly welcomed by the staff due to the operational flexibility it allowed within the Comberton office and the potential ease for the future should any office relocation take place.

The use of Joomla as the platform for their website has allowed staff to easily use and regularly update its pages. This coupled with the use of RealVNC, has meant staff and volunteers, particularly those who live in rural areas, no longer have to travel to a central office as they can work from home, which has helped maximise their productivity and efficiency. Furthermore, procedures around taking backups of files on a regular basis have been tightened.

What was learnt? 

The Care Network now understands that it is essential to have an ICT plan covering short term troubleshooting goals backed up by a longer term strategic plan covering objectives for the future. Having an ICT plan can help tackle the bewildering business of purchasing new equipment which can tend to get postponed until an emergency strikes!

Communication has also improved across the organisation as they can now appreciate and explore how ICT can aid work and enable increased independence of key staff, who have embraced changes such as the use of web based email and converting the office to broadband.

They are now more confident in the ICT systems and they have a friendly expert at the Circuit Riders project to contact when help is required.

Want to find out more? 

Marion Bailey – Care Network Co-ordinator
Care Network
The Old School House
Green End
Comberton
CB3 7DY

Tel: 01223 263623
Web: http://www.care-network.org.uk/homepage.htm
Email: admin.carenetwork@virgin.net

If you want to find out more about circuit riders and how they could help your organisation, visit the circuit rider section of the website.