University of Hertfordshire Belly Dancer 1
Amazing Belly Dancer UH Cultural Week 2008.
Hertfordshire council to launch e-market for adult social care
Hertfordshire county council is set to launch a council-wide e-market system, which will allow council employees to purchase adult social care services and members of the public to buy the likes of home care or day services.
The authority is working with Serco to develop the system, which will eventually include other applications for trading with schools and other items people can buy from the council. Hertfordshire has decided to go live with an adult social care application first, which it hopes to "soft launch" in April 2012.
Sarah Pickup, director of adult care services at Hertfordshire, told Guardian Social Care that the council wants people to be able to access services more easily. She explained that the system is being developed because a person who might be worried about their mother or father needing a self assessment should be able to find information online then proceed to arranging a service like meals on wheels or finding a trusted trader to sort out a loose carpet.
Hertfordshire signs £200m deal with Serco | Kable
The firm will provide services that cover ICT; wider business processes such as finance, payroll and HR; support services; customer contact centres; and occupational health.
The council hopes that the contract, which will commence in April 2011, will make efficiency savings of at least £25m during its lifetime. Serco was named as the council's preferred bidder last month.
Customer services will continue to be based locally using Hertfordshire's offices, with more than 400 employees being transferred to Serco as part of the new service arrangements.
Hertfordshire it believes the contract will make it easier for people to access its services and will make a significant contribution to the savings that have to be made over the next few years.
David Lloyd, executive member for resources at the council said: "The new arrangement with Serco will allow us to make our services even more efficient and save taxpayers' money by sharing the contractual arrangements with district and borough councils and the police authority in Hertfordshire. This means that they have the opportunity to buy into the contract should they wish to do so and share services such as IT, payroll, HR and call centres."