Public Sector Roundup: Taking docs online

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Cheltenham takes planning docs online

Cheltenham Borough Council has improved its management of electronic documents for its planning and building services and moved them online to allow the public greater access via self-service facilities.

Using IDOX's document management and web publishing software, the council was able to better control documents they started scanning back in 2005, but hadn't properly integrated.

Helen Thomas, support team manager for Built Environment at the council, said the system has helped planners with its on-screen measurement feature and its annotation tools.

Citizens like it too, Thomas said. "Citizens using the online facility think it's wonderful...In the past, 80 per cent of visitors to our offices were coming in to view planning applications. The improved online consultation process means that more people are seeking help and advice with regard to planning applications. Many of those are there to ask about things they've seen online."

A 100,000 transfers for NHS GP2GP

The system which transfers electronic health records has been used over 100,000 times, according to Connecting for Health, the IT body for the National Health Service (NHS). GP2GP connects practices, letting them send records electronically, rather than depend on mailing files which can take weeks.

Some 4,000 practices across 149 primary care trusts across the UK now use it, with Hampshire PCT racking up the most transfers.

Dr Simon Sherwin, a GP at Waterfront Garden Surgery, in Hampshire said: "We've been active with GP2GP for about six months now. I have to say that when we receive notes this way it is tremendously fast and in most cases the electronic record is received by the next working day. Notes from the same clinical system integrate seamlessly - the beauty is that all the electronic information is there."

Milton Keynes rolls out children's software

Milton Keynes Council has been fast tracked to the second stage of the Department for Children, Schools and Families compliance stage, after rolling out new collaborative software from Liquidlogic.

The software helps 250 agencies involved in caring for children - from hospitals to children's services division - to share information in a timely, error-free way.

David Merrett, information manager, Social Care at Milton Keynes Council, commented: "One of the worst things that can happen in this job is creating duplicate records on a child. Duplicate files result in information being logged in different places, meaning a child's vulnerability may not be escalated at the appropriate time, since only a partial view of the child's situation might be detailed. We therefore needed to ensure that we chose an ICS system that could eradicate this problem and Liquidlogic's system with its Error Tolerant Search facility was by far the best product that we reviewed."

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