Capita Software Services announces it is working with Aberdeenshire and South Lanarkshire Councils and the London Borough of Ealing Council, to provide Capita Support, the pioneering software solution for local authorities and housing providers. Capita Support will be fully integrated into the councils’ existing systems to provide a fully hosted and customisable solution that can deliver an increasingly efficient service to tenants and citizens, or when monitoring Supporting People and Social Care contracts.

Capita Support provides customers with a single solution that allows access to multiple functions within the councils’ Supported Housing offering and in line with Supporting People services, a Government programme offering vulnerable people the opportunity to improve their quality of life by providing a stable environment for greater independence. Additionally, this solution is the only dedicated system currently on the market which allows matching of clients and providers.

Roger Birkinshaw, Associate Director at Capita Software Services, commented: “The Government’s Supporting People programme is high on the agenda for a number of local authorities, and Capita Software Services’ unique software is addressing the needs of both providers and clients within this arena. We are pleased these authorities recognise that our software can help them deliver a cost effective and reliable housing service and we look forward to working with them in future.”

Capita Support facilitates improved assessment, matching, referral and placement functions for accommodation based and floating supporting services, where support can be provided to vulnerable citizens regardless of where they live.

"The London Borough of Ealing had a requirement to procure an electronic system to help them manage their ‘Gateway / Single point of access’, having sourced two potential systems, each was evaluated against a list of requirements and the Capita Support Gateway solution was seen to meet specific needs,” commented Pam Chima, Gateway Manager at London Borough of Ealing. “The reporting module will make it much easier for us to monitor performance levels and evaluate the good work that we do in the Gateway, and that providers do in partnership with us."

Aberdeenshire Council selected Capita Support for the purpose of monitoring, renewing, tendering and evaluating social care contracts. The software enables the Council to view historical contract information, a rating system providing a reporting ability showing those who provide good or poor quality services, and the ability to record information from the Scottish Commission with regard to the Regulation of Care’s quality areas.

Jean Stewart-Coxon, Commissioning Team Manager at Aberdeenshire Council, commented: “Social Work commissioning and contracting staff in Aberdeenshire Council have long recognised the need for a system to manage the contractual workload and record details of service providers, contracts and contract monitoring information. Having sourced two potential systems, each was evaluated against a list of service requirements and the Capita Support system was a clear winner. The system is now being configured to our particular situation and we are looking forward to implementation.”

South Lanarkshire Council will shortly be using the Capita Support module within its Capita Housing Management System to manage its Supported Housing and Supporting People services and Homelessness Intervention & Prevention.

A senior housing manager at South Lanarkshire Council said: “We face a growing and continuously evolving range of challenges, particularly in the current economic climate, and we want to make sure that we are offering our citizens the very best level of service we can with the help of technology. We look forward to working with Capita to achieve this. We have been using the Capita Housing Management system to support our service delivery for over 10 years and see implementation of the Support module as another key tool in delivering an effective service to our customers as well as maximising benefits from our investment in Capita.”

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For further information please contact:
Capita Press Office, 0207 654 2399

Capita Software Services attributes its position as the leading supplier of software solutions to the public sector and housing marketplace, to its strong partnership approach. It works closely with customers to provide tailored systems in the disciplines of customer services, mobile technology, payment collection, income management, integrated housing management, revenues and benefits processing and services and policy training. Capita Software Services’ customers benefit from a bespoke service, helping them to streamline their processes and deliver a high performance citizen-centric service

As a division of the Capita Group Plc, the company has experienced strong and consistent growth since its inception in 1994 and works with over 70 per cent of local authorities in the UK. Further information on Capita Software Services can be found at: www.capita-software.co.uk

The Capita Group Plc is the UK’s leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions.  With 36,000 people at more than 300 sites, including 62 business centres across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and India, the Group uses its expertise, infrastructure and scale benefits to transform its client’s services, driving down costs and adding value. Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2008 of £2,441 million. Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at: http://www.capita.co.uk