Care SumFin™, will enable Local Authorities to extend Direct Payment arrangements to more clients whilst reducing council worker administrative effort, improving governance and reducing stress and administrative burden for carers and their loved ones. Care SumFin™ can also address digital divide issues as it is available to all clients regardless of ICT skills and infrastructure.

Introduction

Care SumFin™ uses data from the Open Banking Initiative (OBI) to automate compliance processes associated with Social Care Direct Payments (DPs) from local authorities. This data can also provide summaries and alerts to carers, families, advocacy groups and social care teams highlighting unusual activity, low balances, accounts with zero transactions, suspicious vendors and cash withdrawals which may indicate a client in need of some guidance or assistance. Care SumFin™ also simplifies the monitoring process for DP clients.

How It Works

SociaWorks Care SumFin™ uses the Open Banking Initiative (OBI) standards to allow organisations to view multiple bank accounts with multiple owners subject to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

By connecting multiple social care clients’ Direct Payment bank accounts to the SumFin™ service, social care workers will have up to date information on the state of their clients’ finances and a view on how the money is being spent.

Care SumFin™ will collect account summary and transaction summary information at a specified frequency and deliver an Excel spreadsheet to an authorised email address

GDPR risks are eliminated by anonymising all Client personal data. Indeed, Care SumFin™ offers a more secure solution to the DP monitoring process over existing paper, photograph and scans as Client data are not attached to the transaction and balance data. Information governance and s information security are both enhanced.

Environmental impact of the Direct Payment Service will be reduced by the elimination of printed bank statements and mailed copies to local authority teams.