tailored to their needs - ThoughtWorks
tailored to their needs - ThoughtWorks
tailored to their needs - ThoughtWorks
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A cost effective portal<br />
<strong>tailored</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>their</strong> <strong>needs</strong><br />
The Place2Be is a charity working in 172 UK schools. Its vision<br />
is <strong>to</strong> improve the emotional well-being of children, <strong>their</strong> families<br />
and the school communities in England, Scotland and Wales.<br />
The charity was launched in 1994 after increased concern about<br />
the extent and depth of emotional and behavioural difficulties<br />
displayed in classrooms and playgrounds.
Highlights<br />
<strong>ThoughtWorks</strong> develops unique webbased<br />
application <strong>to</strong> enable faster,<br />
secure access <strong>to</strong> important and<br />
confidential child data and statistics<br />
Time <strong>to</strong> access the data is reduced<br />
from 18 months <strong>to</strong> real-time data<br />
analysis.<br />
Software increases resource<br />
availability within the Research and<br />
Evaluation team due <strong>to</strong> reduced<br />
demand for data entry<br />
The Place2Be gives children in schools a safe place <strong>to</strong> express <strong>their</strong> feelings<br />
through talking, creative work and play. It provides a range of school-based<br />
support services directly <strong>to</strong> children, parents and school staff members,<br />
including one-<strong>to</strong>-one and group counselling sessions, a lunchtime service<br />
and whole-class activities such as ‘circle time’.<br />
At the heart of <strong>their</strong> mission is a clear commitment <strong>to</strong> supporting children<br />
with evidential research. In practical terms, this involves rigorous selfevaluation<br />
of the clinical practices carried out as well as undertaking<br />
explora<strong>to</strong>ry research using data collected over a number of years. This<br />
allows the charity <strong>to</strong> challenge <strong>their</strong> methods and support continued<br />
development of a quality-based, effective practice. Research figures and<br />
data that are collected by The Place2Be are of the upmost importance<br />
<strong>to</strong> the charity, schools and local authorities.<br />
The Place2Be has an in-house research and evaluation team that carries<br />
out all the internal evaluations for the organisation and is currently working<br />
<strong>to</strong>wards achieving wider external evaluation and recognition of the work.<br />
The partnership between The Place2Be and <strong>ThoughtWorks</strong> began in<br />
December 2010 and has focused on developing an electronic data capture<br />
format for field staff. The initial pilot was released in March 2011. And the<br />
full launch went live in August 2011.<br />
Challenges<br />
Like many charities working with children, The Place2Be is required by law<br />
<strong>to</strong> capture and document all correspondence from each meeting with any<br />
child, parent or group. This includes all conversations and questionnaires<br />
completed by the child, parent and/or teacher, assessment sheets and case<br />
information forms.<br />
www.thoughtworks.com
Previously, this was all recorded on paper and sent by<br />
post <strong>to</strong> The Place2Be’s head office. From there it was<br />
forwarded <strong>to</strong> an external scanning company and the<br />
digital version was then sent <strong>to</strong> an external data handling<br />
company. After several months the data would be<br />
available for the statisticians <strong>to</strong> analyse. This approach<br />
slowed down <strong>their</strong> data analysis and meant <strong>their</strong> most<br />
recent available data was 12 months old.<br />
The answer was <strong>to</strong> look for a different and secure way<br />
of capturing the information from each child interaction.<br />
Not only would this speed up the paper <strong>to</strong> statistic<br />
turnaround time, it would save the charity money in the<br />
long term. However, it needed <strong>to</strong> be done in a way that<br />
was cost effective <strong>to</strong> the organisation and would not<br />
cause <strong>to</strong>o much disruption <strong>to</strong> the staff’s daily roles<br />
with the children.<br />
The answer was <strong>to</strong> explore a web-based data capture<br />
format and after an introduction from a mutual friend<br />
of the business, The Place2Be turned <strong>to</strong> global IT<br />
consultancy, <strong>ThoughtWorks</strong>, for help in designing a<br />
bespoke portal for capturing data. Having previously<br />
worked on similar projects, the <strong>ThoughtWorks</strong> team<br />
unders<strong>to</strong>od how important it would be <strong>to</strong> develop a<br />
robust <strong>to</strong>ol that would provide a simple, quick solution<br />
<strong>to</strong> capturing data effectively.<br />
“<br />
This is a major event and something<br />
<strong>to</strong> really celebrate. Thank you <strong>to</strong> all for <strong>their</strong><br />
involvement; this is truly a landmark in the<br />
development of The Place2Be.<br />
”<br />
Benita Refson OBE, Place2Be Chief Executive<br />
The <strong>ThoughtWorks</strong> solution<br />
The <strong>ThoughtWorks</strong> team worked closely with Louisa<br />
McCallion, Digital Media Executive and other key<br />
stakeholders at The Place2Be, <strong>to</strong> identify the challenges<br />
the organisation was facing and how it could develop a<br />
cost effective portal <strong>tailored</strong> <strong>to</strong> the organisation’s <strong>needs</strong>.<br />
Working with input from users, the <strong>ThoughtWorks</strong> team<br />
developed a web-based application which was not only<br />
simple <strong>to</strong> use but would have a demonstrable impact on<br />
the business. A selection of developers worked tirelessly<br />
over a five-month period <strong>to</strong> build the software in line with<br />
the objectives that had been set.<br />
Following the successful build and development of the<br />
application, using <strong>ThoughtWorks</strong>’ Agile principles, a pilot<br />
test was launched in Ealing, West London. For one month,<br />
field staff inputted <strong>their</strong> data and recorded conversations<br />
via the web-application <strong>to</strong> identify any difficulties or<br />
problems that occurred.<br />
Feedback from the pilot test was then taken in<strong>to</strong> account<br />
and four months later, the scheme was formally rolled<br />
out <strong>to</strong> all 172 schools. Along with the application roll-out,<br />
step by step online training webinars were created by the<br />
in-house research team at The Place2Be and delivered<br />
<strong>to</strong> all the regional field staff.<br />
www.thoughtworks.com
Benefits<br />
Since introducing the web-based portal, field staff<br />
have been able <strong>to</strong> enter the results from <strong>their</strong> child<br />
correspondence directly in<strong>to</strong> the database. This has<br />
provided The Place2Be instant access <strong>to</strong> regional<br />
and national results.<br />
The Place2Be is already benefitting from a much quicker<br />
turnaround on statistics and in 5 years’ time the project<br />
will have paid for itself.<br />
“<br />
The <strong>ThoughtWorks</strong> team were incredibly<br />
responsive <strong>to</strong> our <strong>needs</strong>. They unders<strong>to</strong>od our<br />
business requirements and that speeding up<br />
our data capturing process was vital <strong>to</strong> the<br />
charity. They also unders<strong>to</strong>od that it had <strong>to</strong><br />
be cost effective <strong>to</strong> our business and that our<br />
staff would need extensive training schemes<br />
in place.<br />
”<br />
Louisa McCallion, ThePlace2Be Digital Media Executive<br />
The Future<br />
The charity will review other areas of the business that<br />
can be updated in the coming years, but for now, are<br />
happy with the web application.<br />
“<br />
We are delighted with how this project<br />
has worked out. Originally we expected some<br />
resistance <strong>to</strong> the project but our field staff<br />
have been extremely receptive <strong>to</strong> the new<br />
technology. In fact, there has been such a<br />
positive outcome <strong>to</strong> the rollout that we have<br />
been asked <strong>to</strong> extend the service <strong>to</strong> other<br />
paperwork areas of <strong>their</strong> job roles.<br />
”<br />
Louisa McCallion, ThePlace2Be Digital Media Executive<br />
thoughtworks.com<br />
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Details of every <strong>ThoughtWorks</strong> office are available on our website