A contract awarded by East Sussex County Council to deploy an information system for social workers to manage social care case data for adults and children includes the potential for six neighbouring councils to participate.

East Sussex County Council has contracted the award for the ‘provision, implementation, and ongoing support and maintenance of a social care management system’ according to the award notice, worth between £2.3m and £2.6m.

The system, from software provider Liquidlogic, enables access to case management data and integration with the information systems of partner agencies, such as Police and healthcare organisations, to provide holistic view of individual cases. 

While the award notice says that East Sussex County Council will be the ‘main site or location of works, place of delivery or of performance’, under EU procurement rules, the contracting organisation is obliged to refer to other organisations that may participate in future, in this case: Brighton and Hove City Council, Hampshire County Council, Kent County Council, Surrey County Council and West Sussex County Council.

These councils, along with Medway Council, form the SE7 partnership, which aims to collaboratively improve the quality of local authority services and increase savings.

The system will be rolled out next year, following several months of integration. 

Please note: this story was amended on 9 October. Only East Sussex County Council is contracting for the system and the other councils mentioned are potential participants only.