Computing awards: Community project of the year shortlist

VSO is on the shortlist

Computing Awards Community Project of the Year shortlist

St Barnabas Hospice
Charity St Barnabas has rolled out SystmOne, an information sharing solution, to 70 users across eight sites, to help support the care of terminally ill patients. Hospice staff are able to see a patient’s medical history, including whether they have MRSA, and they can also communicate with GPs through the system. “It costs £33,000 a year less than our original choice, and is a better system,” said Darren Holmes, head of IT at St Barnabas.

University of Liverpool and Ocius B2
The Community Grid project, a joint venture between the University of Liverpool and communications supplier OciusB2, provides internet access, training and support to 250 disadvantaged households in the Greater Merseyside area. By April 2010, 5,000 homes will be connected in an attempt to reduce the “digital divide” that excludes 17 million people in the UK from IT skills and internet access. Schoolchildren can now complete and submit homework online, while adults can pay bills, shop and bank on the web.

e-Learning Foundation
The e-Learning Foundation is working with electrical retailer DSGi International to provide IT skills to dialysis patients at the Children’s Hospital School at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Sixteen patients are now accessing the London Grid for Learning, using MacBook laptops provided under the scheme. “Using appropriate technology will provide young people on the unit with much-needed continuity, normality and enjoyment,” said John Sosna, head of IT at Great Ormond Street.

Solihull Community Housing
Solihull Community Housing (SCH) is delivering free and subsidised internet access to disadvantaged households in North Solihull tower blocks, after surveys showed that tenants wanted to improve their IT skills and gain better access to employment, support organisations and educational resources. Residents are connected using radio signals, and each building hosts a gateway to transfer in coming bandwidth to the electricity cables in individual flats. A wireless hotspot has been set up to improve regeneration by promoting council initiatives and attracting local business.

Liverpool Direct and BT
Telecare is a non-invasive activity and home monitoring service to improve the wellbeing of elderly and frail people, reducing dependency on sheltered accommodation and nursing homes so that people can live independently for longer. The service is generating initial revenue of £250,000 for Liverpool Direct. It is being rolled out to its first 200 residents, providing real-time intelligent alarms for dangerous situations such as falls, flood and fire, and allowing healthcare professionals to reconfigure the equipment themselves, as the needs of users change.

Bullying UK
Online charity Bullying UK attracts one million visitors to its advice pages every day, and answers 8,500 emails every year, spending just £50,000. It has now created a web application that helps young people and schools produce low-cost anti-bullying posters, copies of which can also be downloaded to mobile phones. Since November 2007, more than 7,000 posters have been printed, saving an estimated £24,000 from school budgets. Bullying UK now plans to look at ways to use Web 2.0 for its cause.

City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
The council has implemented a web-based system called SmartAssist from supplier ADL Smartcare for assessing vulnerable adults. The software supports self-directed care and accommodates a range of different needs, as users range from age 18 to 99. Assessments cost about £10 per person, compared with a cost of £250 for a traditional assessment. Running on a Microsoft server platform, the system is housed in an enterprise-class datacentre with 99.99 per cent uptime, and all transactions are encrypted, to ensure data integrity.

Voluntary Services Overseas
Development charity Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) needed to upgrade its outdated infrastructure and roll out new software to its 40 offices, including those in sub-Saharan Africa. The project used a mix of open source and internally developed software and was run by 10 developers working from the UK and India. Staff now have 24-hour access to VSO’s central systems from any location, reducing dependency on travel and long-distance phone calls.

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