The SHS team plan to increase the number of practitioners working in schools and to grow their overall reach, which in 2022-23 was about 14,000 individuals.

The interactions with those children and their families were being tracked through an ineffective case recording system and multiple inefficient spreadsheets!

Picture this: coordinating information for 14,000 individuals across the year and recording the daily interactions with those children and families with a tool that doesn’t catch typos, doesn’t match workflows and feels like a time-drain to staff? Data embedded in text rich case recording made it hard to analyse the success rates for different strategies to help improve attendance – was it the type of intervention, or the frequency of follow up or other support combination that helped the most.

To get the full picture of how the SHS operates, we’ve had several workshops with SHS’ various teams: their leaders, data experts and people who work directly with students and their families. We haven’t done this to achieve death by meetings. It’s been necessary to understand their processes and the specific challenges each team is facing. 

SHS wants to make sure that every young person, no matter where they come from, gets the same level of support. Without a clear view of all their work, this is a tough task.  

Here’s the crucial bit: to keep going, SHS needs backing from companies and other groups. But these stakeholders want to see that SHS is making a difference. Without a way to easily show this, it’s hard to get the support they need. 

Some backstory 

Before we engaged with the charity, SHS had been searching for the ideal case management tool. A platform where practitioners could log and view their interactions, cutting out the spreadsheet chaos.

They went through several case management tools in the past – but all ended up gathering dust in the cloud: they either stretched their budget, were too complex for users or didn’t address their unique challenges.

After listening to the team and assessing their systems and data collected it was clear to see where things needed to change.

The charity needed a system that was one thing: easy. It should be quick and straightforward, so workers would actually use it on a daily basis and only ask them to input data that was absolutely necessary.

Another challenge was effective permission management: making sure staff in different cities or schools couldn’t see notes from other groups. Yet, SHS leaders and line managers needed to see notes and case info from their respective groups.

Our tailored recommendation

We defined what was needed to make practitioners enjoy essential data recording and to satisfy stakeholder reports and analysis needs. Then we researched the case-management tools market.

A detailed data structure plan and workflow of the required processes formed the backbone of the decision making process.

We ruled out most platforms due to deal breaking limitations. We decided to build a paired down, simple custom interface based on a low-code platform. A system that’s easy to adapt to their changing needs without overwhelming the users.

The data collected via this platform then needed to be presented in flexible dashboards that were easy to manage and configurable to multiple permission levels.

We chose an open source reporting tool that ticked all the boxes. The preconfigured reporting dashboards now answer all of SHS’s usual questions. This will provide easy-to-read summaries of all service users interactions and support efforts.

Dashboards for various user groups and permissions can show big-picture overviews or detailed reports, depending on what SHS needs. So, they can easily spot trends or dive deep into the data, all in a format that’s straightforward to understand and share with others.

Low-code platforms come with their own drawbacks and limitations. We made sure that we kept the SHS team up to date on progress and any issues we came across.

The bespoke case management system went through a rigorous pilot testing phase prior to launch. We identified and fixed any issues, whilst gathering vital feedback from users to make necessary improvements to the system.

The system was rolled out to the complete team in early 2024.

Helping SHS adapt to the system

Once the system was ready to use, SHS experienced a big change. It’ll take some time for everyone to get used to it: digital transformation for non-profits is a big job for humans!

We’ll be right there with them, smoothing out any bumps in the road. We’ve already ensured the new tool easily integrates with existing charity tools for a smoother future transition. This includes the software Star Online, used for visualising journey of change, and Google Workspace.

The next step is going to be a potential link-up with Wonde, a secure system that connects to nationwide school databases. Integration with SHS’ platform would mean staffcould bypass manual data entry for information schools already possess. This means less duplicate work for SHS practitioners. Freeing up their time to reach more children needing targeted whole-family support to improve school attendance.

We’re sharing strategic tips with SHS for managing and showing off their data. Our ongoing digital transformation support helps them find fresh ways to spotlight their impact and create detailed reports. These aren’t your everyday reports – they’re a victory lap in paper form, celebrating every achievement and bringing the charity’s impact into the limelight.

Catrin Doe, Head of Impact and Digital Delivery, shares her thoughts on working with Telescopic as their digital transformation expert in the UK and the project’s outcome:

“Working with Telescopic has been a refreshing journey in understanding and implementing digital solutions, approached thoughtfully from a human perspective. Their team demonstrated not just technical expertise but a genuine understanding of our work environment and challenges.

They:

• took the time to comprehend our problem deeply
• engaged with various teams within our organisation
• posed critical questions to understand our processes and needs

The Telescopic team didn’t just meet our brief but went above and beyond to propose a solution that we are now actively implementing with their robust support. Their timely, collaborative, and innovative approach has been crucial in navigating our digital transformation effectively.”