Tricostar Helping To Improve Children's Services for Sefton Metroploitan Borough Council

09/05/2007

Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council has turned to Tricostar to help determine what life is like for children and young people growing up in their authority.

New government rules mean new responsibilities when it comes to evaluating the contribution that services make to the well being of children and young people.

Tricostar’s new browser-based Children’s Service Evaluation system has been designed to help local authorities evaluate themselves against the Joint Area Review (JAR) and Annual Performance Assessment (APA) criteria.

“With the government trying to reduce the burden on councils, it is important that some of our on-going is done,” commented Paul Rogers, Senior Officer at Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council. “Self-evaluation is about being able to keep your eye on the ball in terms of improving children’s services.”

Sefton have been using the system since December 2006, with over well over 100 users accessing the system on a daily basis from within in the council, as well as the council’s partner agencies logging in and contributing toward the JAR from their own offices.

The hosted service is accessible, via secure access, from any PC (anywhere in the world) and forms a central part of an on-going self-evaluation that is linked directly to the JAR key judgements and performance data.

Tricostar’s Children’s Service Evaluation system will allow Sefton council to improve their performance management, facilitate on-going self-evaluation and encourage better working with partner agencies.

“Inspectors have praised the quality of our strategic and service planning,” added Paul Rogers. “Good quality planning is based upon effective self-evaluation and I see the introduction of Tricostar’s Children’s Service Evaluation system a further development to improve our planning and the outcomes for local children and young people. The new system will facilitate our partnership work, which is key to improving services. What’s more, we have worked with Tricostar for a number of years and we are confident that we are receiving the same high level of product and services as we have become accustom.”

Tricostar Children’s Service Evaluation system, built around the JAR and APA inspection framework, highlights strengths and areas that need improving based on answers given to specific key judgements under the Every Child Matters outcomes. Action Plans are generated for the highlighted areas for improvement and all information feeds directly into the overall Development Plan.

Jeff Lawler, General Manager of Tricostar, said, “We are pleased Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council opted to continue the long working relationship we have developed with them and we are sure they will benefit from our solution that is easy-to-use, non-bureaucratic and can slot seamlessly into their day-to-day management.”


About Tricostar

Tricostar is a leading developer and supplier of practical and workable web based management solutions for the public and corporate sectors. Since formed in 1989, Tricostar has gained a reputation for quality, reliability and innovation.

Tricostar’s Children’s Service Evaluation system is just one of the specialist solutions available from Tricostar. The portfolio also includes; c.Support, the web-based IT Helpdesk, Timebase Case Management, the web based case and matter management solution, and Tricostar School Self-Evaluation system, that gives schools the tools they need to objectively evaluate their performance against Ofsted’s criteria.

More information about Tricostar’s products can be found at www.tricostar.com.