The challenge
Rochdale was seeking cost-effective ways to support the rollout of its Liquidlogic PROTOCOL Children’s solution. They rationalised that an online support and training system would help minimise calls to the Help Desk, train new recruits quickly and enable existing staff to get up to speed on system updates effectively.
The solution
Rochdale worked with Liquidlogic’s exclusive online training provider, Me Learning, in the creation of an e-learning suite to support the Protocol ICS solution. Me Learning’s solution, Me PROTOCOL ICS is a fully hosted online training suite of courses that fully supports Liquidlogic’s ICS solution. Users log-in to the system and access their courses via interactive workflow process maps. Me Learning’s relationship with Liquidlogic allowed them to tailor the e-learning modules exactly to Rochdale’s requirements and work alongside the core training programme. The training was used in two ways, to reinforce learning after the training day and/or as a precursor to the classroom training for new starters or agency workers. All the individual courses are divided into demonstrations, practices, guidance and quizzes. Learners can undertake learning programmes to obtain course completion certificates. The modules were designed to help Rochdale rollout PROTOCOL ICS to its social care staff and provide a training platform with 24 hour access. The key factor for the success that Rochdale has seen, was the early buy-in from senior management. A full ICS training programme was initiated at Rochdale in August 2007, beginning with training for the project management team. Once trained on the new system a series of training sessions were set up to guide users through Me Learning’s training programme. Me PROTOCOL ICS provides an integrated reference manual detailing the 52 modules of ICS functionality, which aims to help optimise the training experience for practitioners.
“The idea was to provide ongoing support to staff using Liquidlogic’s PROTOCOL ICS system, following the traditional training already organised. We rationalised that this would help to minimse calls to the Help Desk, train new recruits quickly and enable existing staff to get up to speed on system updates effectively.”Simon Watton, Information Systems Program Manager at Rochdale
The results
This style of blended learning has increased the efficiency of the classroom training and provided an additional resource for trainers, practitioners and managers who use the system. Me Learning helped Rochdale:
- Improve its data quality as all staff have access to help when required
- Increase the efficiency of existing resources as trainers can focus on those staff who require additional attention
- Achieve and maintain ICS compliance as e-learning demonstrates to the DCSF that an authority is providing ongoing training and support
About Rochdale
Rochdale Borough Council provides services for over 90,000 households across Rochdale, Middleton, Heywood and Pennines. The Council’s 320 Children’s Social Care workers operate from four main offices and five family support centres across the borough and are responsible for 2000 under 18-year old residents. For further information, please visit: www.rochdale.gov.uk
Click here to download the case study.
