Karen Hagenow (left) and Jessica Dunne present at the TSA South West Regional Forum

Since May 2011 Jessica has completed 12 assessments, using Just Checking as a tool to ensure that value for money was being achieved in Learning Disability care packages. In her first paper, she concluded that the system could ensure improved quality of care as well as help to deliver considerable savings (original options paper available here).  Now one year on from the first assessments, the outcomes have been re-evaluated as follows:

• Improved quality of care
• Increased creative use of allocated support hours
• Reduced package costs, through support reduction or change in the way support was provided (savings totalling £139,047.24, avoidances totalling £77,528.16 and further potential savings of £149,209.08).
• Evidence based practice in risk assessment
• Where care needs increased, care could be provided at the minimum level in response to the risk evidence provided through Just Checking
• Supported adult safeguarding investigations

She was joined by Karen Hagenow, our Occupational Therapist for the South West, who has worked with Jessica closely during the trial. Karen said of the pilot:

“The Dorset Trial has clearly demonstrated how effective Just Checking is in providing accurate information in the assessment process to improve the quality of care an individual with a Learning Disability receives.  In every case using Just Checking there was a quantifiable improvement in the care being received, and it really does help ensure that the right care is going to the right people, and at the right time. The amazing  work Jess has completed in Dorset is a great example of how telecare can play an important role in making necessary cost savings, while ensuring that the quality of care is paramount.”

We are looking for a multi-tasker with customer support experience and either accounting or technical/production skills.

We need a technically minded and enthusiastic team player, with first class communication and organisational skills to support our sales team and be in regular telephone and email contact with our clients in the public sector. Additional skills in an operational or accounts function would be beneficial as the role is varied.

Just Checking has developed an on-line monitoring system to help people with dementia stay in their own home and adults with learning disabilities living in shared accommodation.  It’s an IT system applied to social care.

In 5 years we have sold our system to over two thirds of all UK local authorities, and we’re now extending to PCTs, mental health trusts and housing associations.  We punch well above our weight and we have achieved this with a small, hard working, well-targeted team.  Amongst our clients, (commissioners, social workers, occupational therapists, psychiatric nurses), we are renowned for our service.

As a young and expanding company, we need someone who can help maintain the success of our business and wants to grow with us.  We work in a newly refurbished building right on the canal side at Lapworth.  The immediate role is to handle telephone and email enquiries from our customers and support the sales and technical teams.  For this, you need to have an interest in technology and be an excellent trouble shooter as you will provide first line technical support to our customers. In the longer term there is the potential to expand your role if you have the aptitude. Reporting to the customer support and marketing manager, the main duties are:

 Main Duties

• With training, use and be able to talk competently about the Just Checking system.  If you run a mile when it comes to technology, this won’t be for you.
• Man our customer helpline with great service and responsiveness, providing first level technical support and troubleshooting; be responsible for following up enquiries and despatching necessary products.
• Maintain excellent customer service and administrative standards so that sales, quotes and general enquiries are actioned and recorded within our quality framework.
• Provide support for our own Occupational Therapists and our clients who need promotional or training material.
• Be familiar with all the ways we promote Just Checking and the marketing materials we produce.  Supply relevant marketing/sales materials to those who request it.
• Depending on your skills, there is flexibility to assist either the Office Manager with accounting tasks (e.g.: invoicing and ledgers) or the Production Manager with systems and parts manufacture and maintenance.
• Make the tea and scrub the floors (only joking; we all make tea and scrub the floors!)

Essential

• Cheerful, efficient telephone and email manner.  People have confidence in you and like dealing with you.
• Experience dealing with customers, either face to face or by phone. You enjoy the immediate demands of a customer service role and thrive in delivering the best possible customer experience.
• High standard of spoken and written English.  If you are good at writing succinct, purposeful copy, all the better.
• University or college education, or equivalent experience with A level standard education plus a further qualification gained along the way. You might be an experienced individual from an operational, accounts/admin, customer support or technical background or a recent graduate with customer and admin experience.
• Results orientated with excellent problem solving/trouble shooting skills.
• A whizz at using MS office applications (MS Word, Excel, email, shared calendars and contacts) and interested in technology. Expect to be tested on this at an interview.
• Meticulously well organised, with attention to detail. You meet high standards of business administration.
• A team player with can do attitude and used to taking the initiative.
• Committed to operational excellence and on-going personal growth.
• Non-smoker, please.

It doesn’t matter where you have gained your experience as long as you can give examples that match our list of essentials. We will expect you to provide such examples at an interview.

Working in a small but expanding company, you will need to be flexible and willing to turn your hands to whatever needs doing; everyone here works hard and is prepared to go the extra mile to offer a high level of service.  We actively support the professional development of our staff.

Remuneration

Salary guide £18k – £20k, negotiable according to experience.

25 days holidays, plus bank and public holidays.  Holidays are worked out with other staff so that we cover the office between us.

How to apply

Please make sure you visit our website before emailing your cv and an introduction to yourself, with examples of how you meet our ‘Essentials’ list to: valerie.hibbert@justchecking.co.uk.  We look forward to receiving your application.

Closing date: 21 May 2012

Sorry no agencies or recruitment helpers.

What’s the job?

We are looking for a talented PHP Developer to join us in developing our web app. If you love writing clean handwritten code and have a passion for performance, you’ll fit in well.

You need experience of developing websites/web apps and know how to manipulate code efficiently. You’ll know how MVC applications work and be able to apply your skills and expertise in this area. We currently use the Yii framework, so knowledge of this would be beneficial. We have database experience in-house so you don’t need to worry about that. (If you are a database wiz on the other hand, we’d be glad to listen to your ideas.)

We need extra hands onboard to help drive our market leading service to the edge of web possibility. Your desire to push web technology forward by developing real-world applications that people use everyday is very important. If you live and breathe the web, spend your time looking at the latest PHP release versions and extensions, and love manipulating data we want to hear from you.

You can help!

Working at Just Checking is different. We have an open plan, canal side office with a friendly bunch of inhabitants, all of whom sit at comfortable desks with custom orange chairs. Not all of the team are code savvy but that makes it fun. You will join the development team with access to your very own desk, PC and large LCD monitor. Coffee and tea is available all day, everyday, for FREE!

We love our clients and look after them. Coming to work is a pleasure for the whole team. We’re often  excited to come to work because we’re working on a new idea.

Working hours are 9.30am – 6pm, we don’t want you to miss out on your social life! We wear smart casual clothes just in case we have a visit from a client, but suits are out.

Salary.

Yes we’ll pay you, £25k-30k dependant on experience.

Apply for it.

Just Checking is a fast growing company. If you fancy being our next employee, email: jr01@justchecking.co.uk including your CV and a brief explanation of why you would like to join the company. If you include previous work, links, images, Google+, Facebook or anything else, we’ll be glad to have a look!

Sorry no agencies or recruitment helpers.

Just Checking is pleased to announce that our ‘carer’ system for families can now be purchased through the UK’s first specialist retail website promoting technology for health care, www.alvolution.co.uk.

Launched last December, Alvolution showcases a wide range of products and services to help individuals who are aging or have long term conditions to manage their health, and maintain their independence. Designed for people with Alzheimer’s, dementia, diabetes and other long term conditions, and their carers, the site has been developed by the health technology specialist Medilink, which has more than ten years’ experience working with major brands, the NHS and social services.

The website looks set to be the most respected source of products and equipment that make life easier and safer in the home, and will provide people with an easy way to learn, browse, compare and choose technologies that support independent living and improved wellbeing. Just Checking is delighted to be included in the products available for purchase through Alvolution, and we hope that this will mean that even more carers and families can benefit from the system.

Outcomes were:

• Improved quality of care
• Reduced package costs, through support reduction or change in the way support was provided
• Evidence based practice in risk assessment

Actual savings of almost £70,000 and avoidances of £47,000 were made as a direct result of the trial of 10 cases, as well as potential further savings of more than £125,000. Download the full report.

This position has been filled

However, if you want to send in your CV we will keep this on file, ready for our next recruitment run. If you fancy being our next employee, email: jr01@justchecking.co.uk including your CV and a brief explanation of why you would like to join the company. If you include previous work, links, images, Google+, Facebook or anything else, we’ll be glad to have a look!

Tunstall Healthcare Group is the leading telecare and telehealth provider in the UK and worldwide.

Tunstall Sales Director Richard Rawcliffe says…

“Just Checking is a valuable addition to our growing range of telehealthcare solutions, better supporting our customers’ short term assessments and informing longer term packages of care, identifying where telecare can offer ongoing support. Government policy is increasingly focusing on reablement, preventing re-admission to hospital and delaying the need for long term residential care. Assessment forms a vital part of delivering the services needed to support people in their own homes, and Just Checking offers a quick to install and cost effective means of assessing a person’s ability to manage in the community.”

Celia Price, Just Checking Marketing Director says…

“This partnership means Just Checking will be introduced to a greater number of health and social care organisations, where there is enormous pressure to make finite budgets work harder. A better understanding of a person’s capabilities, when they are living alone, allows practitioners to target care where it is needed, and to encourage independence when it is not.”

Just Checking will retain management of the associated web-service and helpline, and will continue to provide all product support.

Just Checking has launched a Multi-Person Kit, for supported living houses for adults with learning disabilities. The kit establishes the need (or not) for night sleeping staff, and highlights opportunities for more efficient deployment of staff, and more independence for service users.

Adults with learning disabilities services account for a quarter of all adult social care spending. With major pressure on budgets, these costly services are under scrutiny.

Warrington Borough Council recently piloted Just Checking in 6 shared houses, each with sleeping night staff, and concluded that this high level of support was not necessary. The council is now re-shaping the service, using half of the savings to invest in telecare to manage safety risks and remote night support staff who will cover all 6 houses if needed.

Download leaflet about Warrington pilot