Statement on iCare
A number of enquiries have been received concerning the development of the Council’s proposed iCare website. The statement below is from Kim Wright, Corporate Director for Health and Community Services:
We appreciate that there is some concern that Hackney iCare has not yet been launched and we would like to update you on the reasons for this and what we are doing to address the issues.
Originally it was envisaged that the iCare tool would be developed by the Council. However, as we began to develop and then test the first version of iCare, complete, packaged online solutions became available on the market which would meet the needs of social care users. Many other London boroughs are now using these, as they offer a variety of interactive functions such as online forums, the ability to ‘harvest’ content from other relevant websites and compile supplier shortlists as well as signposting users to a whole range of services and providers.
Therefore, we have decided to move to an externally developed package which will be tailored to meet the needs of the Hackney service users identified when iCare was first being developed. We will ensure that the project includes opportunities for rigorous user testing. We aim to have the new system up and running by the middle of 2012.
While we develop iCare, we will continue to provide information on the Council website that will include details about service suppliersand their costs for personal budget holders, help and advice on personalised budgets, signposting to relevant services and useful links. These will go live shortly.
We understand that the process has taken longer than anticipated but we are committed to proving a high-quality, accessible and above all valuable online system that reflects and responds to the needs of service users and we are confident that the approach we have chosen will deliver this.
