New software tool to shave millions from adult care budgets

Councils can save millions on their adult care spend by using software that captures real-time information on the cost and usage of services, it is claimed.

Derbyshire Council, which is testing Trips – Transforming Raw Information In Public Services – estimates it will save at least £2m a year on a net annual budget of just under £200m.

The savings come from the software’s function to analyse data on finance and activity in real-time, rather than relying on year-old data, and show the costs of individual service users and social care teams.

Councils can then capture differences in costs between individuals and teams and analyse them.

“It will help us be more cost-effective,” said Derbyshire’s adult care director, Bill Robertson. “It will make a major contribution to our efficiency savings.”

The free tool has been developed over two years by the East Midlands regional improvement and efficiency partnership, the Department of Health and the NHS Information Centre. Councils can also tailor it for their own adults’ services departments.

What do you think?Join the debate on CareSpace

Keep up to date with the latest developments in social care. Sign up to our daily and weekly emails