SOCIAL CARE NETWORK SOLUTIONS LIMITED

CHARMS

Secure hosting, development, Case Management.

Children: front-door referral service, child protection, family hubs, care orders, Regional Adoption Agencies, prospective adopter assessment, adoption support, letterbox, fostering, foster carer recruitment, assessment, panel, payments, residential care, semi-independence, care leavers, supported living,

Adults: shared lives, residential care, supported employment, day care and domiciliary care.

Features

• Adopter/foster carer recruitment, training, assessment, panel, approval and placements
• Front-door referral service, court, care order, social worker caseload
• Family finding by ethnicity, gender, age, postcode, matching considerations
• Potential links, matches, placement plans and outcomes monitoring
• Ofsted/CSSIW/TUSLA/Care Inspectorate, ASGLB, CQC, BASE regulatory reporting
• Digital Letterbox (Keeping In Touch) for adopters and birth families
• Real-time communication and verification of case notes/supervisions
• Young people, service users and children in care access
• Foster family daily logs; adopter, care worker, family member access
• Secure hosting, development of, and integration with, other applications

Benefits

• Immediate access for case workers to records and case notes
• Share information in a timely fashion with caregivers
• Provide access to key information, to all stakeholders
• Quickly identify support needs and manage care plans
• Manage potential matches of children and vulnerable adults
• Raise alerts and prompts for key workers and support staff
• Facilitate daily recording of events in line with care regulations
• Allow access to panel papers, securely, online for all members
• Keep track of all applications to foster and adopt
• Share outcomes of children in care with LA social workers

£110 to £110 a licence a month

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at jim.moores@socialcarenetwork.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

859769744247253

Contact

Jim Moores
07930541248
jim.moores@socialcarenetwork.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: No constraints
• System requirements: Internet Browser

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: 2 hours during weekdays 09:00 - 17:00
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Onsite support
• Support levels: CHARMS telephone support is provided at no extra charge to all users with unlimited calls and support length. Maximum response time is two hours. ; First line support calls are all dealt with immediately. No telephone menu system. Calls are put straight through to the support team, based in the UK.; Account Manager support is also free.; Technical assistance is also free.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: CHARMS implementations follow a well rehearsed implementation process which includes a formal and detailed business analysis.; Onsite training is provided free of charge.; All users are trained, hands on, in small groups of up to 4 people.; Users are trained in the specific features applicable to their role(s).; CHARMS Champions are provided with additional training to give them sufficient knowledge and confidence to cascade train new starters and to provide refresher training.; New starters may also be trained by expert CHARMS trainers either on site or remotely, at no charge.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats:
  • Word
  • Google Docs
  • Wiki
  • Powerpoint
  • Videos
• End-of-contract data extraction: The contract includes a commitment to offer a full copy of the data and associated files in any common format without charge. This would include a full SQL Server backup and ZIP file of all attached electronic documents.
• End-of-contract process: At contract termination a timeline is agreed with the customer and they may ask for a copy of the data in advance of termination for data import trials, followed by a final copy of the data at the termination date.; Full support is offered to the customer, or their representatives, to understand the database structure/schema.; There is no charge for any of the above.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: None.
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 A
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: There are a number of secure APIs to exchange sensitive data with other systems.; APIs can be tailored for each customer. APIs are provided for customer reporting and taking enquiries from customer websites direct to CHARMS.; CHARMS works as an enterprise solution and shares and consumes data from other enterprise software and data stores.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • PDF
  • Other
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: CHARMS allows designated users to customise forms and lookup lists to suit local regulatory requirements.; Different service areas can modify labels and features depending on needs.; The frontend user interface allows users, with appropriate permissions, to undertake customisation.; Customers can ask SCN to customise CHARMS for them.; CHARMS is designed to support the way the user works - it is not proscriptive.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Each user has their own SQL Server database and their own website URL. All systems are mirrored and optimised to ensure there are no demand issues. Our infrastructure guarantees unlimited broadband access.; Load balancing is implemented.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: User logins.; Service uptime.; Data changes.; Any custom metric specified by the customer.
• Reporting types:
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Users may request a full copy of their data at any point of the contract. They can also be provided with regular, scheduled backups for storage on their own infrastructure.; Users may also be set up with reports to extract data in common formats such as CSV, XML, Excel, Json.; Associated files can be extracted by users with appropriate levels of access.; There is no charge for any of the above.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • XML
  • Excel
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • Excel
  • XML

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: 100% Connectivity Availability - This is access to the infrastructure; 99.5 Application Availability - This is access to the application.; ; If availability falls below the Uptime Service Level in a given calendar month (Service Delivery Failure), the Supplier shall credit the Customer's account by an amount calculated as the product of the total cumulative downtime (expressed as a percentage of the total possible uptime minutes in the month concerned) and the total Monthly Hosting Fee and Monthly Software Licence Fee owed for that month (Service Credit).
• Approach to resilience: CHARMS is delivered through two geographically separate datacentres. These centres are located on either side of the city of Manchester.; ; All hardware infrastructure is mirrored in each datacenter. One datacenter acts as the failover - all activity in the prime datacenter is immediately updated to the failover datacenter in real time.
• Outage reporting: The service reports outages and problems through our public wiki.; ; Emails are sent to key users.; ; SCN Account Managers will also telephone all customer main contacts.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Other
• Other user authentication: Single sign-on is available.
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Approved Users Only
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: Other
• Other security governance standards: Cyber Essentials.; ; Cyber Essentials Plus.; ; OWASP Top 10.
• Information security policies and processes: Our information security policies are mapped to ISO27001:2013. We have an ISMS.; ; We have in place accreditation of technical controls as specified by Cyber Essentials Plus.; ; We undertake staff security training on a continuous basis and development team security training annually. We have enshrined security requirements in our staff contracts and handbook.; ; We conduct regular testing and reviews of our measures to ensure they remain effective, and act on the results of those tests where they highlight areas for improvement.; ; Where appropriate, we implement measures that adhere to an approved code of conduct or certification mechanism.; ; We ensure that any data processor we use also implements appropriate technical and organisational measures.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: As part of the CHARMS configuration and change management procedures, all changes are applied and tested in a separate development environment before being approved for use on live systems. All changes are requested and tracked in a task management system and each change request is assigned to a member of the development team to enable it to be tracked and audited. Vulnerability scans are performed prior to every major release to ensure that any changes have been analysed for potential security impacts.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: CHARMS perform vulnerability scanning on both the application and the infrastructure to ensure the security of the whole system. Each release of CHARMS is scanned before the web application is released into production. Patch management procedures are in place to ensure that servers are regularly updated with the latest security patches. Critical patches are applied within seven days of being released. All patches undergo testing on development systems prior to installation on production servers to ensure there is no adverse impact on system. The infrastructure team subscribe to security and vendor newsletters to stay updated with the latest security vulnerabilities.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Our infrastructure is protected by Cisco hardware and web application firewalls are used to further secure our applications. These scan and log all connections and any potentially malicious requests are automatically blocked. All system activity is captured and audited (including IP addresses). Connection attempts (both successful and failed) are audited and the audit logs are regularly analysed for suspicious activity.; In addition to our internal monitoring systems our managed hosting provider has their own monitoring systems in place. If alerted to any situation that threatens the performance/security of our infrastructure, incident tickets are automatically logged and our technical team contacted.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Users can raise incidents by phoning any of our support numbers, by emailing the support team or by contacting their account manager. Incidents will then be prioritised and assigned to an appropriate member of staff. The CHARMS support team follow pre-defined procedures for addressing common events. Customers will be supplied with a copy of the incident report and a copy will be retained in our internal incident tracking portal.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  All aspects of the operation are delivered using digital means, including contractual documentation, shared documents, training material and reports. ; There is no reason to print or generate hard-copy information.; All collaboration can be done digitally.; The majority of staff work from home and therefore the company's fossil fuel footprint is very low.

  Covid-19 recovery

  Remote working collaboration allows people to continue to work by providing the necessary tools to adhere to social distancing guidelines. It also provides business continuity during uncertain times.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Accessibility: enables the bridging of the digital divide.; Economically more effective as it releases funding that would otherwise be used on expensive technology.; SCN works with local supported employment services to place individuals in the company who would otherwise have barriers to employment.; SCN offers opportunities in the high growth sector of software development and particularly in addressing the needs of the social care environment.

  Equal opportunity

  SCN has made strides to eliminate bias in recruitment processes and to make adjustments to offer opportunities to all applicants.; there are standardised processes to ensure that all candidates are evaluated based on the same criteria.; Working with local supported employment providers ensures that those with barriers to employment are also considered.; SCN facilitates remote work allowing all staff to engage.

  Wellbeing

  SCN's CHARMS application offers personalized recommendations and content based on users' preferences, goals, and needs, helping them to better manage their mental and physical health.; CHARMS can help users track and monitor their progress towards their wellbeing goals, providing insights and feedback that can help them make more informed decisions about their health and wellness.; SCN operates an organisational system called sociocracy. which focuses on engaging all staff and customers in decision making and continuous development.

Pricing

• Price: £110 to £110 a licence a month
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: All features are included in the free trial.

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at jim.moores@socialcarenetwork.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.