New Pilot for Out of Hours On Call

Community Integrated Care Scotland region is launching an exciting trial this Autumn to test a new approach for On Call support for frontline colleagues.

On Call is a crucial part of our charity’s support delivery, ensuring that our frontline teams can seek advice and escalate urgent matters outside of general working hours.

After listening to the voice of our workforce, feedback has shown that additional On Call responsibilities, on top of already hugely demanding roles, is placing strain on our managers and impacting wellbeing.

This new, exciting On Call pilot builds on the success of Community Integrated Care’s Covid-19 Rapid Response Line, which utilised the expertise of our Technology Enabled Care team. Further exploring capabilities that the 24/7 service brings, we’ll be building a high-quality, out of hours advice and escalation service.

In the new On Call service, responsibilities for the first tier of support will be streamlined and transferred to a team of experienced Shift Managers. Part of the Technology Enabled Care team, Shift Managers have instant access to all Community Integrated Care support systems, including Care and Support Plans and local out of hours plans.

With this new model, our charity will be able to deliver consistent and further informed guidance, tailored towards people’s personal outcomes.

By re-allocating the On Call duties from regional teams to a central specialist team, it is hoped this will positively impact many of our colleagues.

To ensure we are creating a robust and sustainable service and keeping safety at the forefront, the pilot will be introduced in a phased approach. During the trial period, a shadow On Call will remain in the local service to ensure that that there is an opportunity for learning and development whilst the  new approach is stress-tested. Once the agreed criteria has been met, we will transition from pilot to business as usual.

Joanna Scammell, Managing Director of Technology Enabled Care said, “This is an exciting next step in the evolution of our Technology Enabled Care plans at Community Integrated Care and testament to the endless possibilities that technology provides to innovate social care to benefit the people we support and our colleagues.”