RIVIAM Digital Care is awarded funding from Innovate UK to enhance its new social prescribing platform used in Bath and North East Somerset to transform the way health, social care and third sector organisations are co-ordinating care

22nd July 2020 – RIVIAM Digital Care has been awarded £48,450 funding by Innovate UK to enhance its new social prescribing platform.

RIVIAM’s Wellbeing platform is currently used in Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES) by Virgin Care, BaNES Council and many third sector organisations, including Age UK BaNES, Citizens Advice BaNES and Bath Mind, to co-ordinate the provision of food, mental health, wellbeing and welfare support for vulnerable people during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since April 2020, approximately 1500 cases and just under 6500 calls for support have been managed quickly and efficiently by partner organisations collaborating together online using RIVIAM in a Compassionate Community Hub.

The funding provided by Innovate UK, the UK’s Innovation Agency, will be used by RIVIAM to extend its current Wellbeing social prescribing service, transforming the ability for health, social care and third sector organisations to work together.

New capabilities will enable authorised users to set and share tasks, track outcomes and instant message each other about cases – all securely with strict security measures. Each partner organisation will continue to use its own systems but RIVIAM acts as a secure ‘digital bridge’ to share information and provide a single view of a person’s care. All data used within RIVIAM Wellbeing is securely stored in UKCloud Health’s UK sovereign multi-cloud platform.

Paul Targett, Managing Director of RIVIAM Digital Care, says:
“People only want to tell their story once and to receive a timely, personalised response from different agencies working together. But it’s currently really hard for organisations using different IT systems to share information securely and co-ordinate care. Also, providers in the third sector don’t have the digital capabilities to communicate easily with their health and social care partners.”

“With RIVIAM Wellbeing, organisations in different sectors can collaborate as one team harnessing their collective power to deliver for people in need. The funding from Innovate UK allows us to develop a new way for multi-agency care to be delivered making taxpayers money go further.”

Claire Thorogood, Head of Contracting & Performance, BaNES Council, says:
“Providing a system whereby partners can share information securely and work more collaboratively has been and will continue to be crucial to the success of the Hub. This has transformed how we have worked in partnership.”

“RIVIAM has contributed to the success of the Hub because all partners can track the support we offer to individuals to best meet their needs. It also enables staff across all organisations to work more flexibly whether that is from the Hub or at home. We welcome this additional funding that has been secured.”

Michael Plows, Manager of Community Volunteering Services Bath and North East Somerset, Virgin Care, says:
“The Compassionate Community Hub is an excellent example of a strong working partnership created through the Council, Virgin Care, 3SG and other third sector partners across different organisational boundaries all coming together and making a real difference to the local population.”

“RIVIAM has been instrumental in the success of our collaborative approach allowing us to streamline the digital processes in a shared and secure way. Paul and his team at RIVIAM have pulled out all the stops to get the platform up and running in such a short space of time and we are all looking forward to the additional capabilities provided by RIVIAM via the Innovate UK grant.”

Les Redwood, CEO Citizens Advice BaNES, one of the organisations using RIVIAM, says:
“At Citizens Advice BaNES, we have been working with other charities and third sector organisations over the last year to bring together a partnership with BaNES Council, Virgin Care and the Clinical Commissioning Group to provide a more effective and efficient service to residents, patients and clients all across BaNES. The dreadful challenges of Covid-19 galvanised these partnership discussions into greater action and the Compassionate Community Hub was born. Ten organisations were quickly and effectively working together to initially provide an emergency response to Covid-19.

“The ‘glue’ that pulled all this together was the revolutionary technology platform that was created and delivered to support this crucial work – RIVIAM’s Wellbeing service. This, without doubt has enabled the initiative to become a huge, unique, nationwide success story, and to deliver a far more effective and efficient solution for the Local Authority, lead healthcare provider and local third sector partners.”

James Carlin, Director, 3SG, which represents Bath’s third sector organisations, says:
“RIVIAM has been key to the success of the Compassionate Community Hub. For the first time, we have been able to work collaboratively on one platform without the need for phone calls or emails. This makes for more accurate partnership working and a better service for residents in all parts of Bath and North East Somerset.”

Kate Morton, CEO, Bath Mind, one of the organisations using RIVIAM, says:
“The establishment of the Compassionate Community Hub in response to the pandemic has been an amazing achievement. Ensuring a collaborative, multi-agency approach to community service provision has been vital to meeting the needs of the BaNES community, and RIVIAM has been instrumental in this. It has allowed all organisations to work in a more efficient and coordinated way and so provide a flexible, timely response to our communities.”

Ends

Notes to editors

For more information please contact:
Claire Hopkins
Customer Success Director, RIVIAM Digital Care
07952 009163
Claire@riviam.com

About RIVIAM Digital Care
RIVIAM Wellbeing enables healthcare, local authority and third sector organisations to co-ordinate care and social prescribing in a seamless, efficient, secure way improving people’s lives.

RIVIAM Digital Care is passionate about improving people’s lives by providing a secure platform and services for health, social care and third sector organisations to collaborate and co-ordinate care. Our technology connects with existing computer systems and clinical records whilst enabling new care services. With RIVIAM, our customers can make better use of their resources, build on information within existing NHS systems and deliver joined-up care with joined-up information. For more information, visit www.riviam.com

About Innovate UK
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas.

We connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business growth.

We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.

For more information, visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org

About the Compassionate Community Hub in Bath and North East Somserset
Virgin Care and Banes 3SG, who represent third sector organisations across Bath and North East Somerset, have come together alongside BaNES Council and the CCG to offer an advice and support hub. Compassionate Community is a BaNES wide movement which recognises that there are people and organisations supporting each other, can step in as and when needed, with actual or virtual support. Read more here:
https://bathneshealthandcare.nhs.uk/wellness/community-volunteer-services/compassionate-community-hub/

Source: RealWire