The City of Stirling is continually striving to develop and enhance its services for the benefit of both the staff and the wider community. One particular effort in the streamlining of operations is through the use of laptop technology. This technology enables select staff to have a ‘mobile office’, allowing real-time online access to the City information systems.
The technology supporting the mobile office is a combination of using Toughbook laptops with secured wireless communication access to the City’s internal network. This model of portable computing will allow any staff with mobility requirements to have the same access to information whether they are sitting at their desk or on the road.
In particular, one area where the City proposes to utilise this technology is in Community Services, primarily by the Home Support Coordinators (HSCs). The City has six HSCs who provide services for around 550 clients each. The HSCs conduct assessments in client’s homes and coordinate a range of Home and Community Care Services. Assessments, case notes and service arrangements are placed on an information database called the Service Management System (SMS).
Trials have recently commenced with the HSCs utilising laptops to enable data collected when visiting clients to be entered directly in the system, rather than being written on a paper copy and then re-entered when the HSC returns to the office. Required client data can also be extracted from the SMS instantly. This is a new innovation and subject to the outcome of the trials should lead to more efficient operations for the HSCs and improved service delivery for clients.
