Lancashire County Council

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Lancashire County Council

"We believed that using IT as a tool for social change in this environment would be successful" commented David Halpin Service Manager for Physical Disability within Lancashire County Council. "When we justified this belief, we were successfully awarded funding."

The Challenge

The traditional emphasis for the physically disabled has been medical rehabilitation, which is based on how well individuals can perform daily living tasks. However, while physically disabled people may have successfully met the criteria for medical rehabilitation, they have often found themselves isolated and unable to find employment. In response to this, in recent years the government has set targets that relate to reducing social exclusion.

David Halpin is Service Manager, Physical Disability within Lancashire County Council Social Services Directorate. "These centres used to be the end of the medical and social care line for many people" he explained. "What we had to do was transform each of them to be a starting point instead. This meant we had to change from providing an old fashioned day care centre to providing a service that encourages users to develop their own identities."

The new focus was on personal achievement and every centre attendee was encouraged to develop an individual action plan (IAP). This was to be agreed between the service user and the centre staff and would include practical real life objectives, such as feeling more confident about making a visit to a library or a restaurant.

David Halpin recognised that the new emphasis on lifelong learning and the application of learning to enrich daily life would involve a cultural shift for Lancashire County Council. "The service is no longer simply offering day care; there is a cultural shift to the provision of tailored individual action driven programmes."

The first challenge was to find a tool to enable a different approach and a partner to help implement it. When one of David’s team came across Fujitsu’s concept of Cyberskills she immediately identified a fit both with the council’s new targets for social rehabilitation and with user needs. "I could see that Cyberskills was about problem solving and connections with other people," said Janet Gray. The next challenge was to obtain funding.

The Solution

David Halpin sought advice from Fujitsu to help the council to identify potential sources of funding. "We believed that using IT as a tool for social change in this environment would be successful" commented David Halpin. "When we justified this belief, we were successfully awarded funding." The council was able to buy Fujitsu’s Cyberskills managed service for five centres. The service includes a proven methodology, hardware, software, implementation advice and user support. A contract with Fujitsu was signed in July 2002.

The Benefits

"Cyberskills is about people seeing that they have a choice and taking more control of their lives" said David Halpin. "Yes, it is about taking the scariness out of IT but on a deeper level it's about having a better sense of self. It’s about solving a series of problems, transferring these skills into daily life and engaging with society more confidently. The investment we’ve made tells people they are worth it."

The new IT facilities are helping both users and members of staff to alter their expectations of themselves and increase their resilience. The wider outcomes will be seen through IAPs and the visions that service users have. As David Halpin commented, "We are not teaching techniques or pressurising people to get a job. We simply provide the opportunity for people to feel more comfortable about themselves."

"It's about having a better sense of self.It's about solving a series of problems,transferring these skills into daily life and engaging with society more confidently."

Through the internet a single mother regained contact with a brother she had not seen for 15 years; Users can connect up with other Cyberskills centres,local resources, Councillors and each other via video conferencing and e-mail. This means they can communicate with people who face similar challenges; they can access and create a wider community via the web. As each centre has laptops and digital cameras, the housebound are not excluded and active users are free to pursue personal projects away from the resource centres.

Cyberskills activities generate much discussion as users pass on tips; hot topics include family and local history. "It has opened up a whole new world for me and I love it" said one user. "I never realised what I was missing" said another.Through the internet a single mother regained contact with a brother she had not seen for 15 years; she was overjoyed at extending her family. Several users have made peer presentations on subjects of immediate interest such as better government for older people (BGOP).

Fujitsu provides a help desk facility so members of staff can focus on their professional responsibilities and on meeting government targets for UK online.

David Halpin again: "We are using Cyberskills as a tool for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery so that we can reduce dependency. We can clearly see how the problem solving process and new skills are influencing service user IAPs. The emphasis is now on reaching more disabled people by enabling a throughput of users through the resource centres."

The Implementation

Within the managed service contract, Fujitsu not only took responsibility for all technical requirements it also advised the council on managing change. Fujitsu worked with the centre managers to help to explain new developments to service users through simple and positive messages such as ‘People first, technology second’.

All planning meetings took place in resource centres and Fujitsu’s experts spent time with staff to explain how Cyberskills could feed into IAPs. A project newsletter kept users informed of progress and of the opportunities that Cyberskills would bring.

IT facilities were installed in five centres early in 2003. Centre staff members were trained in February and the council appointed a dedicated coordinator to give them ongoing support. The approach was very low key. Members of staff voluntarily prepared presentations to capture the interest and imagination of service users, for example, one presenter set up a video conference with a friend in Australia. The emphasis was on peer learning and the gradual dissemination of skills so that centres would build up their own in-house expertise.