Decision details

Digital multi-media advocacy

Decision Maker: Officer decision - children's wellbeing (Historic)

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

To approve the implementation of a pilot digital multi-media advocacy solution for children and young people with disabilities and their families.

 

Decision:

THAT:

a)     a contract to provide an online multi-media advocacy platform for children and young people with disabilities be awarded to Rix Wiki/Multi-Me for a period of 24 months at a cost of £26,951; and

b)   by virtue of this decision an exemption to paragraph 4.6.13.2 of the council’s contract procedure rules shall be granted to enable the direct award because there is no other provider in the market as described within the report.

Reasons for the decision:

The direct award pilot will run for 24 months and allow us to evaluate how effectively the integrated Multi Me / RIX Wiki platform supports collaborative, person-centred working, promotes the voice of the child and family in assessments and reviews, facilitates information holding and sharing under the control of the child, young person or family and evidences achievement.  Other councils and institutions are using one of these platforms but this will be a new integrated platform combining the functions of both apps therefore a pilot is proposed initially.

The evaluation will be completed at the end of year 1 will inform future decisions regarding procuring licensing and support package for roll out to children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and potentially other populations

 

Alternative options considered:

There are no digital alternatives currently developed that provide the required functions, which are secure and designed for use by people with learning disabilities and which have been used by councils, special schools and colleges. This proposal is for a combined platform providing a unique range of functions including information storage and selective sharing, circle of support, social networking, goal setting, and multi-media self-advocacy.

 

The alternatives to a family-owned digital option include the current paper based family records and current means of inter-agency information sharing. Neither of these empower families to share information selectively, support person-centred planning, enable use of multi-media to describe the child and family and their needs and preferences, to produce and share plans and programmes. They do not support collaborative working or facilitate communication between the circles of support.

Wards Affected: (All Wards);

Publication date: 17/05/2017

Date of decision: 17/05/2017

Accompanying Documents: