CHARMS Social Care Community Newsroom

We had a CHARMS booth at the  Family Focused Treatment Association (FFTA) Conference in Columbus, Ohio on 10th - 13th July 2023.

 

After an inauspicious start - none of our marketing giveaways had arrived on Monday 10th, neither had the popup stand - all was well as it all turned up at 11:00 on Tuesday morning and by Wednesday afternoon almost all of our CHARMS™ branded freebies had been snapped up.

 

The big message we heard was that there are a limited number of case management systems in the US designed specifically for adoption and foster care agencies. Data security/privacy was also a concern. In that regard we were able to reassure the community that CHARMS™ has it covered.

 

 

 

With CHARMS™, all sensitive data on children and vulnerable adults is held securely in data centres in the UK which comply with the ISO27001 international standard described by the ISO themselves as:

 

 

 

CHARMS™ is hosted in data centres which are operated by a company called ANS and they are ISO27001 certified. We maintain full disaster recovery so that even in the event of a complete failure of one of the data centres, the backup data centre takes over so that the service continues - vital for the child welfare environment.

 

 

 

Cyber threats are also now much more prevalent and at CHARMS™ we renew our Cyber Essential Plus certification in the UK on a yearly basis to ensure that your data is as safe as possible from dangers such as ransomware attacks. The Cyber Essentials Plus certification includes a rigorous, yearly inspection of our infrastructure and an in-depth analysis of our security procedures.

 

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, offers up-to-date advice at https://www.cisa.gov/cyber-guidance-small-businesses.

 

With CHARMS™ you can also connect remote users securely and seamlessly using multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO).

 

All of these measures are implemented with CHARMS™ and we have your data secuirty needs covered, all the time.

 

Forbes offers advice on data privacy:

 

 

 

Lots of delegates were intrigued by the CHARMS™ Carer Login. This gives foster parents access to CHARMS™, configured so that they can engage in the process as much as others stakeholders do. In particular instead of doing daily logs on paper, which the social worker might not see for weeks of even months, they complete them, securely, online. When a daily recording is complete the foster parent signs it off and the social worker can read it immediately and sign it off. They can even add their own feedback. It's CHARMS™' very own chat facility.

 

For more information you can call 0161 237 1872 or email info@socialcarenetwork.com

A very warm welcome to our newest CHARMS™ customer, We Care Nursing Services!

 

 We Care Nursing Services provide domiciliary care, independent supported living placements, and supply healthcare professionals within the NHS as well as private companies. To find out more about the services they offer, please check out their website: https://www.wecarenursingservices.co.uk/

Just two weeks to go until we'll be at the Family Focused Treatment Association (FFTA) conference in Columbus, Ohio! We're proud to support the FFTA as a platinum sponsor and can't wait to be there. Come find us at booth 36 for a chat about CHARMS™!

 

In other news - check out our ad at the top of the latest Fostering Media Connections newsletter!

https://mailchi.mp/fosteringmediaconnections/3nasw1ljvr-2855121?e=a5bca2732d

Welcome to our newest CHARMS™ customer, The Bettermeant Group.

 

East Midlands based The Bettermeant Group provide residential care to vulnerable young people. In their own words, "The Bettermeant Group is on a mission to continue on a life-affirming journey that builds on providing richness of morals, skills, pedagogy in all of the various forms to young people."

To find out more about their services please visit  https://www.thebettermeantgroup.com/

We're excited to announce that CHARMS™, the secure online case management system for child welfare, will have a booth at the Family Focused Treatment Association (FFTA) conference taking place in Columbus, Ohio 10th - 13th July 2023!

 

 

For more info or to arrange a remote, informal demonstration of CHARMS™, please feel free to contact our US Coordinator, Alicia Gibson on:

Tel: 480-884-1757

Cell: 805-722-7703

Email: alicia.gibson@socialcarenetwork.com

 

More details are to follow soon and we look forward to meeting you at our booth!

Welcome to new CHARMS™ customer CFS Care!

 

CFS Care provider of care services for vulnerable young people across the North West of England across 3 core areas - fostering, supported accomodation, and residential care.

 

To find out more about their services visit https://www.cfscare.co.uk/

A very warm welcome to our newest CHARMS™ customer, Tutis Foster Care.

Established in 2015, Tutis Foster Care is an independent fostering agency based in Whitehaven, Cumbria. To find out more about their service you can visit their website: http://tutisfostercare.com/

Social Care Network ('SCN'), providers of the widely used CHARMS™ system, works with more than 300 registered independent children's services providers across Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland and Scotland. More than 250 independent fostering agencies use CHARMS™, securely, online to manage all aspects of recruitment, assessment, training and approval of foster carers, and thereafter to enable all stakeholders to keep records, securely, on the progress of the children and young people they support.

 

Many of the largest children's residential providers also use CHARMS™, and with the new regulations with regard to supported accommodation an increasing number of organisations who provide semi-independence housing are also joining the CHARMS™ family.

 

We at SCN see therefore, as we support our user community, how young people leaving care can struggle to access employment.

 

Given that CHARMS™ is also used by a number of supported employment agencies across the UK, we are also ideally placed to see the opportunities for children's services and supported employment providers to work together make the path from the transition into adulthood slightly easier. Or as the authors of the study say, in their executive summary:

 

 

Also in the executive summary of the study  'Care leavers’ transition into the labour market in England' (https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CareLeaversLabourMarket.pdf) we are told:

 

 

SCN is engaging with Laura Davis, the Chief Executive of the British Association for Supported Employment ('BASE' https://www.base-uk.org/home), to look at ways of bringing together children's services providers with supported employment agencies to address the employment barriers faced by young people leaving care.

On Thursday 18th May the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI) are hosting a free webinar, 'Spotlight on Supported Internships', for parents and carers of young people preparing for adult life.

 

For more information and to book your place please visit NDTI’s website: https://www.ndti.org.uk/news/webinar-spotlight-on-supported-internships

Welcome to new CHARMS™ customer One Adoption South Yorkshire!

 

One Adoption South Yorkshire are made up of the adoption services at Barnsley Council, Doncaster Council, Rotherham Council and Sheffield City Council, working together to provide adoption services across South Yorkshire.

 

To find out more about the services One Adoption South Yorkshire provide, please check out their website https://www.oneadoption.co.uk/about-us/south-yorkshire