Case Compass, social services case management toolkit 

Publications Bank of innovations

Case Compass, social services case management toolkit 

World Bank Group, Rapid Social Response 

social worker visit

A set of tools that the World Bank makes available to social service practitioners in any country with the aim of facilitating their work, promoting the social protection actions of governments and improving case management services. 

Case management is a social protection strategy that meets the needs of a wide range of populations. It is a goal-based and highly user-centred process, requiring assessment of the needs of the user. In the case of social services, the most frequent targets are low-income families, unemployed or jobseekers, children and the elderly. Social workers are responsible for supporting these people in solving individual or family problems, facilitating their access to services through an agreed action plan. 

To facilitate case management, the Case Compass tools include catalogues of available programmes, forms for assessment and design of intervention plans with families, manuals to support each phase of the intervention cycle, protocols and referral mechanisms, and support material for daily social work practice. In this way, the World Bank aims to support local social service operators and provide them with the possibility to adapt the tools to their specific context.  

Case Compass also offers a prototype –the Case Management Information System (CMIS)– which provides information on beneficiaries and collects and details the progress of any intervention or referral in internal or third party services. Finally, Case Compass offers personalised advice to social services teams to set up and run the platform’s tools. 

Vangin, integration of social services into a single citizen portal 

Publications Bank of innovations

Vangin, integration of social services into a single citizen portal 

Talgildu Føroya

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Portal that brings together in one place all the digital services of the various public institutions of the Faroe Islands (Denmark), including social services, to provide citizens access to information and management of all types of procedures. 

Vangin has become an example of digitalization in the public sector worldwide, placing the Faroe Islands in a leading position. Vangin centralizes all services in this Danish territory and is available to everyone over 15 years of age with a Faroese personal identification number. The previous and key step to use this tool is the registration through Samleikin, which is the electronic authentication used in the Faroe Islands. 

Vangin offers a wide range of self-service services from various providers, and social and welfare services are included in them. Thus, citizens can easily carry out often complex online procedures, such as applying for official documents, registering for social programs or submitting applications for public services, without having to physically travel to the institutions. It also offers a personal calendar that allows to keep track of appointments, facilitating the organization of citizenship from reminders of relevant deadlines. Furthermore, Vangin provides a secure mailbox called Mínboks, which allows receiving and sending messages related to the issues that are of interest to each individual, guaranteeing at all times the confidentiality and security of communication.  

LifeCompanion, a customisable assistant for people who have difficulty communicating orally

Publications Bank of innovations

LifeCompanion, a customisable assistant for people who have difficulty communicating orally

Centre Mutualiste de Kerpape

Assistive Technology 1

Personalised digital assistant that provides communication assistance and access to information technologies. It is free and open source and facilitates oral communication for people with difficulties.

LifeCompanion is a highly customisable and flexible assistant, so it can be used in different contexts, but it is mainly intended to facilitate computer access and communication. In fact, one of the outstanding features of LifeCompanion is its integrated speech synthesis, which allows users to communicate using speech. LifeCompanion thus aims to promote the social participation and autonomy of its users in areas such as communication, access to information technologies, education and employment. It also contributes to establishing social links, especially with caregivers and professionals close to them.

LifeCompanion works in such a way that it adjusts to the individual’s motor, visual, auditory or cognitive abilities and development. For example, it enables pictographic and phonetic communication, as it includes a vocabulary tree with pictograms and pictures and a customised phoneme communication keyboard. Digital keyboards can also be customised and typing can be accelerated with advanced word prediction. Among other functions, LifeCompanion also facilitates motor accessibility, anticipating movement and with advanced configurations in this area. In this regard, it is important to note that it has been co-designed by and in close collaboration with end users.

Rural Care, innovation in care for rural dependents 

Publications Bank of innovations

Rural Care, innovation in care for rural dependents 

Castilla y León Social Services, Junta de Castilla y León, Diputación provincial de Valladolid, Fundation Persones, Plena inclusión Castilla y León, European Social Network

An innovative project that offers social support, health care and opportunities for participation in the community to people with dependency, disability or chronic illness living in rural areas. It aims to enable people to remain at home with security, quality of life and dignity, maintaining their life project and daily routine. 

rural care asistencia mayores

In rural areas, which in recent years have been dominated by an ageing population, families, communities and volunteers play a crucial role in well-being. The Rural Care project stems from the desire to ensure active ageing around the home and is based on the premise that community participation is essential. This initiative is implemented in the province of Valladolid, in a rural context. Thus, this project, which is part of a European initiative for innovation in social services, is designed for people who are in situations of dependency and require constant support and care. 

In this sense, the aim is to guarantee the dignity of people, ensuring their autonomy and respecting their preferences and wishes. Rural Care also focuses on the families and carers of the project participants, providing them with support to reconcile care tasks with personal, social and working life, as well as to ensure their own health.  

This project stands out for its multi-level partnership of public and private actors, as well as for the coordination of social and health services at different levels. The Support Plan developed for each project participant includes different professionals: a coordinator, a case manager, a reference professional at home and in the community, among others. Among the support actions, it is worth highlighting that the home is also adapted and a personalised community participation programme is designed. In this sense, it is worth highlighting the fact that one of the project’s objectives is to dynamise the rural territory, local occupation, community involvement and social cohesion. 

By My Side, an app that offers support to drug-dependent women

Publications Bank of innovations

By My Side, an app that offers support to drug-dependent women

Simon Community Scotland, AND Digital

Application that offers support, advice and resources to women who consume drugs to facilitate access to information and proper decision making to improve their health and well-being.

drug addiction treatment

In order to address the misinformation and harms of drug use among women, which often leads to death, and in conjunction with technology consultancy AND Digital, who have volunteered their digital knowledge and expertise, Simon Community Scotland (SCS) has created By My Side. This app provides evidence-based harm reduction advice that is easily accessible to people who use the charity’s services.

It is designed by women for women. While primarily focused on advice on preventing drug-related harm, the app also has wider resources, such as guidance and guidelines on issues and mental health management and support for people affected by domestic or sexual violence. Thus, the app allows the most relevant advice and resources to be accessible and available to women without ever having to approach a service if they do not want it. The By My Side app enables them to access high quality information and make informed decisions about their health, wellbeing and safety.

Cut All Ties, a digital project for the reduction of male violence in adolescents and young people

Publications Bank of innovations

Cut All Ties, a digital project for the reduction of male violence in adolescents and young people

REC Programme, ABD (Associació Benestar i Desenvolupament), Fondazione Acra, Citibeats

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A training and education programme based on new technologies that contributes to reducing gender violence that women suffer in their youth, and specifically in their first sexual relations.

Given the alarming data on gender violence that women suffer from an early age, the Cut All Ties project aims to contribute to raising awareness, preventing and reducing male violence –sexual, physical, emotional or psychological– in the first sexual relationships between young people. The ultimate goal is to bring about changes in social norms and behaviour in the people who make up this group. The project will be carried out between January 2021 and January 2023 and is aimed at students aged between 15 and 17 and teachers from 6 secondary schools in Barcelona, Madrid and Milan, a total of 120 young people and 120 teachers.

The project has been mainly based on data extracted thanks to new technologies, as it has been implemented through the design, implementation and validation of a training programme that has allowed the participants to reflect and learn in order to identify and prevent gender violence in their first affective sexual relationships. Thus, in order to identify the issues and problems most present among this group, as well as the causes, prevalence and consequences of gender violence, 200,000 anonymous data have been collected through a transnational Artificial Intelligence text analysis platform.

Specifically, Citibeats’ algorithm, which analyses unstructured text data, identifies social trends, gender-based violence narratives and common concerns across countries. This information, as well as that extracted from the anonymous Typeform survey, has been key to developing the training programme which, in secondary schools, has emphasized good practices and tools to prevent gender-based violence. These actions have been led by groups of young feminists, close to the students.

SällBo, intergenerational and multicultural housing to combat loneliness

Publications Bank of innovations

SällBo, intergenerational and multicultural housing to combat loneliness

Helsingborgshem

SallBo Canasta 2 1

Multicultural and multigenerational residential space to combat loneliness and promote social cohesion between generations and cultures. The social housing and integration project provides incentives and areas for residents to interact socially and in company.

The SällBo building, designed by the municipal housing company Helsinborgshem, is intended for people over 70 and under 25. It aims to create a new way of living where the generations can meet within the social life of the center. Beyond that, it is also designed to bring cultures together and promote social cohesion: some of the young people living there are refugees who arrived in the country as unaccompanied minors. The primary objective of the project is none other than to break the involuntary loneliness in which these groups find themselves, especially the elderly and young people who are beginning their process of integration into the host society.

In order to access housing in this building, which is made up of 51 flats for rent, the cost of which is around €400, it is compulsory –and signed by contract– to socialise with other residents for at least two hours each week. Tenants are selected individually through interviews, always prioritising the diversity of profiles and origins.

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Publications Bank of innovations

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Catalan Government, Save The Children

A pioneering integrated unit in Catalonia and Spain, made up of a specialised multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to avoid the re-victimisation of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse and to provide all the necessary care in a single space.

Barnahus is a project to help children and young people –from 0 to 18 years of age– who have suffered sexual abuse and to prevent aggression against minors. It puts the victim of sexual abuse at the centre, working in a single space with all the care services they need and minimising the traumatic experience of reliving the aggression. This avoids victims having to go through courts, police stations, hospitals and children’s services. It is promoted by Save the Children and is supported by five Catalan government departments, mainly the Social Rights department, but in coordination with the Health, Education, Justice and Interior departments.

Barnahus has a welcoming and friendly appearance to provide security, comfort and confidence to children and their families. There are separate rooms to preserve privacy, a kitchen-dining room, offices and a medical examination room. The psychosocial team –consisting of psychologists and social workers with a coordinator– works full time, 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and also offers translation services.

Mixed Living, residents who live with and collaborate with highly vulnerable people

Publications Bank of innovations

Mixed Living, residents who live with and collaborate with highly vulnerable people

Tussenvoorziening

Mixed social housing blocks of flats where homeless and economically vulnerable people live together, which is beneficial for both groups. It facilitates access to housing more quickly for many people while the community activities carried out in the buildings promote social reintegration and break down the social isolation and stigmatisation of homeless people.

Mixed Living is a form of housing in which 70% of the people who live there are on low incomes and in need of social housing and the remaining 30% are people who are vulnerable, usually homeless people who are beneficiaries of the Housing First programme. Both parties must comply with the previously established conditions of commitment and rules, mainly regarding the care of the environment they share. Participating in this social accompaniment programme is advantageous for people in the first group, reducing their waiting time for access to social housing.

It is also clearly favourable for homeless people —and not only, because the programme is also aimed at people with a lack of social network or psychological problems— for whom the contact and cohabitation with other residents facilitates their social reintegration. In this sense, the shared housing enables proximity between the two groups with common meeting spaces that make it easier for them to have coffee, watch a football match or look after the courtyard. The project is supervised by professionals who visit the block of flats at least once a week and are responsible for assessing and managing the functioning of the cohabitation.

Co-design, people with intellectual disabilities co-design mobile applications

Publications Bank of innovations

Co-design, people with intellectual disabilities co-design mobile applications

Grup ABD

Conjunt d‘eines de co-disseny del servei irlandès Saint John of God Liffey (SJOG) que possibiliten que les persones amb discapacitat intel·lectual creïn aplicacions mòbils que fan servir en el seu dia a dia i milloren la seva qualitat de vida.

El programa Co-Design neix de diagnosticar un baix compromís de les persones amb discapacitat intel·lectual en la innovació digital, fet que les exclou i augmenta la bretxa digital. Així doncs, funciona de tal manera que les persones amb discapacitat intel·lectual estan implicades en totes les etapes, des de la diagnosi d’un problema fins que el producte final, que té per objectiu solventar-lo, està dissenyat. Així, a banda de proporcionar idees de projectes en un inici, se’ls consulta en totes les fases del procés i influencien les decisions dels dissenyadors.

S’han desenvolupat diverses aplicacions tecnològiques. Destaca l’exemple d’una aplicació mòbil que facilita a les persones amb discapacitat intel·lectual la compra diària d’alimentació. L’aplicació proveeix d’informació sobre el preu dels productes i també mostra imatges sobre la quantitat de diners que cal pagar. Així, els usuaris estan més confiats durant les seves interaccions amb els empleats.