Contact Group partners with Middlesbrough Council to develop Looked After Call

Aug. 7, 2012 - PRLog -- Developed in conjunction with Councils, Looked After Call from Contact Group is a new money-saving solution that allows local authorities to accurately and securely monitor the attendance of children in their care. A cost effective alternative to manual reporting, Looked After Call collates and processes data in real-time providing staff working within Children and Young People’s Services with a clear picture on each individual child, so simplifying reporting and the submission of Social Service Data Activity (SSDA) returns.
Attendance data from schools in and out of borough is transferred securely to the Looked After Call system to be viewed by the local authority and should a looked after child be absent or late to school a call/text message to the Foster Carer/Home/Corporate Parent can be sent.

Access to the system is via a secure server and HTTPS encrypted website which identifies the local authority, the user and their permissions. Upon logging onto the secure website, a summary of the data gives at-a-glance reporting on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, showing excluded students, absent students, persistent absentees and pupils awaiting placement.

Data can be further drilled down to show personal details, attendance information and statistics for AM and PM sessions which can be viewed via at-a-glance graphs. Local authorities can also access pupil’s assessments to track and monitor grades and marks, behaviour marks or detentions, special education needs, Personal Education Plans (PEPs), school history and exclusions.

Stephen Clarke, Managing Director, Contact Group, comments: “Looked after children are at greater risk of being overlooked which may account for the large disparity between the attendance levels of children in care and those living with their families. Local authorities have a legal responsibility to monitor every looked after child in their care, a responsibility which must continue even after the child has moved out of the local authority area. With tighter budget constraints and the need to improve outcomes, Looked After Call helps local authorities meet these obligations.

“Looked After Call is a cost-effective solution. It provides attendance information and statistics every day and identifies patterns of absenteeism which allows early detection and intervention. In addition, phone calls or text messages can be sent to the Call to Foster Carer or Corporate Parent should a child be absent from school, to ascertain the reason.”

For further information about Contact Group please call 0844 448 4422, email sales@the-contactgroup.com or visit: www.the-contactgroup.com. Follow @contactgroup on Twitter.