Helping to support vulnerable people

Driving council efficiency with a financial solution

The councils of today need financial data solutions just as much as private sector businesses. With the economic downturn impacting everyone, but particularly those who rely on the council for support, it is vital to ensure that the providers working alongside the councils are financially sound, and also are encouraged to be honest and transparent.

Southend-on-Council had recently launched a new Contract Management System to run alongside their tender portal, and all existing contracts needed migrating and onboarding onto the new platform. The new system was designed and developed to make sure that efficiency was at its heart, and that it was easy for the Contract Managers to use and understand.

One key area of this new Contract Management System was supplier management and monitoring, an essential feature for Southend-on-Sea City Council. To keep up with the increasing demands of the social care sector and manage the risk to vulnerable people within the borough, they needed a solution that could provide the necessary information, accurately and without delay.

“We needed to know if there were any changes to our suppliers, particularly those that might be worrying in nature. That kind of visibility and transparency was very important to us,” said Jenny Newberry, Contract Management Systems and Development Officer.

Before working with Red Flag Alert, the council had a slower process. They would have to request reports to individual emails, which could get buried in busy inboxes or delayed by annual leave. Teams would have to email out data and request any actions, a process that could take at least three working days.

“The beauty of Red Flag Alert is that our Contract Managers can just log into the system and see exactly what’s happening and get an overall report straight away. The reports for Red Flag are much more practical and thorough than the other ones we’ve used. I think they give people more context and useful information,” said Jenny.

In an evolving situation and to keep up with the demands of a busy council, Red Flag Alert needed to be accessible, accurate and reactive – so that if anything changed with providers working alongside them, Jenny could instantly flag it to the Contract Manager in charge and get them to investigate further.

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Effective monitoring and enhanced oversight

Since the launch of our successful partnership, Southend-on-Sea City Council have utilised the value of Red Flag Alert's platform and now integrates our software within their own Contract Management System. This process has provided seamless and instant visibility, whenever and wherever it is needed.

During the Council's process of overseeing social care providers, in locations such as residential care facilities, fostering services, and support for individuals with learning difficulties, the integration of Red Flag Alert assumes a pivotal role. It provides the Southend-on-Sea team with the requisite tools to diligently monitor and evaluate the financial standing of each company, safeguarding the economic integrity of the Council but, more crucially, fortifying their commitment to the well-being and security of the vulnerable individuals entrusted to their care.

Furthermore, the integration of Red Flag Alert's software allows visibility of all business reports to every relevant Contract Manager. The council has around 428 providers, a huge number to keep track of, all with their own economic issues and difficulties. Not all providers are willing to be fully transparent with their financial situation, with a worry of losing the council contract. Access to our business reports and dashboards eliminates the need for manual investigation, time consuming processing and the dissemination of multiple reports and contracts. Instead, the information seamlessly flows through the system and ensures that nothing vital is missed.

“Red Flag Alert gives us the evidence we need to start those conversations. We rely on them to flag these things up. Through the software, we can see if they’ve had multiple CCJs, high staff turnover, they’ve not uploaded their accounts, or if they have two or three red flags. We'll know that some members of our Service Area Team need to go and have a conversation with that provider to protect the people we have placed with them,” shared Jenny.

To make the process even easier, the council has also seamlessly integrated the Red Flag Alert software into their managerial contract templates and views it as an integral component to their internal processes. Working with a software solution provider such as Red Flag Alert ensures a comprehensive awareness of all ongoing developments, and the extensive adoption by the South End Council underscores the undeniable value it brings to their operations.

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