A simple standard approach

Together for Mental Wellbeing (Together) is a forward-thinking national charity who work alongside people on their journey to improved mental wellbeing, supporting them to live independent lives.

Maldaba met Together in 2014, and the organisation’s senior managers had already translated their mission into business goals: consolidate the charity’s position as a provider of high quality residential, outreach and criminal justice services. Key to Together’s success was growth, and in order to scale-up their operations the management team needed better digital systems for their staff.

Together had a system that used a combination of digital documents, MS Word and Excel, and physical paper copies, all of which made it very difficult to ensure client case details were accurate and up to date. Often multiple case workers would require access to the same information, which caused a significant block to their daily workflow.

It was soon identified, through a series of workshops, that a single source system, that could be accessed online, was the preferred option.

The full story

They wanted better intelligence about the people they work with, the outcomes of their support, and an organisation-wide view of their performance.

Maldaba led a structured set of discovery workshops, helping Together to articulate their needs.

We had a detailed review of the specific terminology Together used, due to the complexities regarding the different services they offered at alternate locations.

This took several weeks, but was critical in identifying the various data types the system would need to accommodate.

This led to the need to develop an admin interface that would accommodate these complexities, and ensure that case workers were only accessing the information relevant to their cases.

Together then commissioned Maldaba to conduct a requirements analysis. Maldaba visited Together’s offices across the UK, understanding the different service types and meeting the staff delivering those services.

Once this was complete we then started working on wireframes to identify the types of information the case worker would need to have access to. Fortunately this was already very well defined, due to the existing regulated processes that the case workers follow, so our task was to identify the best way to convey this information to case workers.

Initially we considered many more typical show/hide mechanisms which we reviewed with the client. Those were acceptable we didn't feel this was the best fit for Lumis. We then proposed, via a video demonstration, that a context specific menu, based on the current system location, may be more appropriate. Immediately the client could see the benefits and that is the mechanism we went with.

Maldaba spoke with senior management, performance and quality, regional managers, service managers, service staff and head office staff. We spent time with data, finance and IT staff to understand the organisation’s infrastructure and processes. Our detailed analysis enabled Together to review their options.

For several workshops we discussed how the case workers were most likely to interact with cases and it was identified that there are three key states to this process. Referral, Engagement, and Move On. Referral details the initial consultation with the client, to determine if due to their circumstances, Together after able to offer them some support. This primarily involves capturing any detail pertinent to the case.

The Engagement process then detailed how Together would record and monitor the progress of each case. One aspect of this is risk management. Depending on the particular case, there may be an identified risk for the particular client.

Through a series of wireframes we developed a 'Risk management plan' that allows the case worker to record, and rate, circumstances particular to the client. The overall rating is then fed back to the case dashboard, and the staff dashboard. There is also a notification system that ensures that should the status of a case change, all the appropriate staff will be notified.

At the end of 2016 Maldaba and Together began a bespoke development project to create Lumis, the charity’s case management system. On Maldaba’s advice, Together assembled a user group representing a cross-section of the organisation. Through regular workshops, Maldaba delivered a system that supports and benefits all staff on a daily basis. The system went live in autumn 2017.

Staff log in to Lumis on a daily basis, the dashboard gives them a headline overview.

For a non-technical person, working with a techie person is a big challenge. My experience of Maldaba was enlightening from start to finish. They helped our Charity understand what we wanted and mapped out the route to get there.

Data is linked, and easily filterable, which enables staff to quickly target specific information. Service staff are able to manage their caseloads and can track their current activities with service users.

Managers can see how their service is performing. Because the system is web-based, performance and quality teams as well as senior management have instant access to real-time information entered by staff, and staff are motivated to enter this information because it benefits themselves too. Lumis integrates with Together’s identity management to minimise user administration of the system.

Advanced Reporting

Lumis uses Maldaba’s powerful reporting module which offers graphical and tabular reporting. Users create report presets to quickly run the same report again and again.

Staff who work with intermittent internet connections benefit from the system’s auto-save feature which performs frequent background saves while the user is online. Before the connection is lost the information is stored as users work, and users pick up where they left off once connectivity is restored.

Fore more information about Together visit together-uk.org