Agilisys acquires social care software company Quickheart
Agilisys, one of the UK’s leading digital transformation partners in the public sector, has acquired Quickheart, an innovative technology company that specialises in digitally enabled social care solutions.
Over the last five years Quickheart has developed a number of social care solutions to enable citizens to understand, fulfil and manage their social care needs online. This step by step, customer focused approach allows an individual to arrive at the most appropriate level of support they require, and gives them complete control over the type of support they receive.
Agilisys and Quickheart have enjoyed a successful partnership for the last two years, focusing on their shared desire to support citizen engagement with public services. The platform is already being used by many councils including Birmingham, Enfield and Swindon and Agilisys recently integrated Quickheart social care solutions into its My Account platform at Thurrock Council, and has seen first-hand the value delivered to both local citizens and the service overall.
This acquisition will further bolster Agilisys’ digital transformation expertise and build on the last four years of investment in developing the market leading Agilisys Digital and Agilisys Engage citizen-centric platforms.
It is estimated that adult and children’s social care activity currently accounts for two thirds of council budgets. According to the National Audit Office, £16bn is spent on adult social care services every year. What’s more, councils are continuing to face budget pressures against a backdrop of an aging population, an increased demand for social care services, recent legislative changes such as the Care Act and enhanced Health and Social Care integration.
Now more than ever, local authorities are seeking innovative and creative ways of working to assure the future provision of social care services. With this new functionality, Agilisys is expertly placed to help connect local councils with the health, voluntary and private sector who are increasingly providing services for local citizens with, or on behalf of local authorities.
The acquisition means that Agilisys offers the only ‘out of the box’ local government digital platform with the full suite of adult and children social care solutions including assessment, Resource Allocation System capabilities and a digital marketplace, including full integration.
Agilisys will now be looking at how it can support new and existing clients, including county councils, in providing greater independence and control to service users and carers, drawing on their recently announced strategic partnership with Kent County Council.
Steven Beard, Agilisys chief exec, said: “Following last year’s major overhaul of social care with the implementation of the Care Act, local authorities are under even more pressure to deliver cost effective adult and children’s social care services. By simplifying and automating citizens interactions with social care, through a unique outcomes-led approach, councils can ensure constrained budgets are focused on the provision of care to support those in need.
Acquiring Quickheart enhances our extensive suite of market leading digital solutions to provide a rich range of automated transactional capability for both adult and children’s services, as well as the foundations to provide a digitised link into health services. We are delighted to be in a position to offer these services and extend our offering to the market.”
To find out more please email info@agilisys.co.uk or contact the Comms & PR Manager Nicola.hammond@agilisys.co.uk on 07580970410.
Agilisys
We are one of the UK’s leading IT, business software and services provider. We work with both public sector partners and private sector businesses to transform the services they offer their customers through the use of our digital platforms and consultancy.