West Midlands Regional Development Centre have developed this database in particular response to requests from small 3rd sector organisations who were concerned with their ability to demonstrate their activity and outcomes, particularly their ‘softer' improvements in mental health outcomes, to commissioners from Health and Social Care agencies.
The "Activity and Outcomes" database has been designed to meet a range of information needs in the most efficient way. The database has pre-set queries and keeps the option for any service organisation to be able to write their own specific queries.
The database which is still being refined includes recording improvement in clients/service user's mental health and well-being as rated by the clients themselves, using both local and evidence based rating scales. We have included approx 12 scales and have separately promoted the use of WEMWbs, for pre and post intervention measurement. The data base is currently being piloted with 3 small 3rd sector organisations all of whom have expressed interest in using WEMWbs.
Use the WEMWbs web page to follow the requirements for seeking permission for use and this will remain in the final version. >> WEMWbs
The information needs addressed by Activity and Outcomes Database include:
For commissioners / funders:
- Information about the number of clients that have been referred, assessed, supported, signposted to other services
the sources of referral and discharge / closure.
The improvement in clients / service user's well being as rated by the clients themselves using both local and evidence based rating scales (such as the Warwickshire and Edinburgh Measurements of well Being Scale (WEMWEBS), Health of our Nation Outcome Survey (HoNoS), etc)- Statistical reports on length of engagement, level and types of service provided to clients.
- Costs per clients shown as average costs with full range of costs and financial deviations.
- Appropriate and legal organisational arrangements (such as registered charity, limited company etc.)
- Quality assurance systems of the service organisation (such as records of staff competencies, healthy and safety arrangements, insurances - public liability and employee.
- Policies underpinned by quality standards (such as equal opportunities, data protection etc.)
- Required human resources arrangements (such as staff support and training arrangements, criminal records bureau checks for staff etc.)
- The range of identified clients needs showing those which can be met and those which cannot be met by the service organisation.
For the service provider organisation:
All the above and:
- Memos regarding each clients assessed needs and all of the contacts / services received.
- Training log for each staff member
- Schedule of polices requiring refresh / updates.
- Summary of staff costs (including paid, seconded and / or volunteer staff)
All of these will be built into the database and additional quires can be set up as required using normal Structured Query Language (SQL) the common language of proprietary relational databases. This database is being initially designed in Microsoft Access which enables the following options:
- Migrate the database (and queries) to other open source software (such as MySQL) that requires no fees to be paid by the service organisation.
- Migrate the database into Microsoft SQL Server (a popular large scale database server used by many statutory services).
This can help to improve access to statutory funding and address the expectation that whilst the Third Sector are expected to be providers of services in co-ordination with statutory services, there is a need for financial stability and governance.
The Database is currently being piloted and will be available for distribution around December 2007 to January 2008.
If you need further details please email:
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