Merseyside Digital Development

Halton CAB Wins National IT Award December 5, 2006

Local charity, Halton CAB, has shown that not having access to the millions of pounds of public money spent by the government on computer technology and e-government services, is no barrier to them developing ground-breaking internet services, and their volunteers are now celebrating after the organisation won a national award for “Best IT Volunteering Project – impact on organisations” in the Barbican, London.

Judges for the competition, run by the website IT4Communities and supported ComputerWeekly.com, commented on the high standard of nominations. Other finalists included a website to promote World Aids Day and a home-working system for charity workers. But it was Halton CAB’s Online Referral System that most impressed the panel.

The system took over a year to develop and much of the work was done by CAB volunteer Panikos Panayi, who also works as IT manager in Manchester. Judges commented that “Panikos was instrumental in the development of a range of new services. His skills and commitment have changed how the organisation operates and delivered systems which are maintainable by the CAB.”

The CAB’s online referral system is reported to be the only one of its kind and helps the CAB track vulnerable people who need advice. Agencies in Halton can register to use the system to log referrals via a secure website. The CAB can then prioritise cases to ensure urgent cases are dealt with first before allocating it to anyone in its advice team across the borough. The system also monitors response rates and waiting times, helping the CAB to improve its services.

Hitesh Patel, manager of the CAB, said “I am absolutely delighted the CAB won this award and especially pleased for Panikos. We know how dedicated and committed our volunteers are but it is always nice when they get recognition from others.

“This system has really improved our service because now when people are advised to ‘go to the CAB’ they can be given checklists of the information our advisers need to give the right advice at the first visit. It also means people do not fall out of ‘the system’ because if someone who has been referred to us fails to show up we can be pro-active and call them to offer our services. This minimises the chances of peoples’ problems escalating.”

Age Concern and Shelter, who also operate in Halton, have already expressed an interest in adopting the award-winning system for their own services and the CAB is looking for sponsorship to roll the system out to other charities and organisations. Currently each agency has its own set of paperwork that needs to be filled in for inter-agency referrals which can be both confusing and time-consuming. But by using a standard online system with a single log in, professionals only need to learn the one protocol, making it a lot easier to ensure people get the help they need.

For more information see the Halton CAB website:
http://www.haltoncab.org.uk/