Tap-In’s Referral Process
The first actions required partners agreeing how referrals would operate.
Partners agree to jointly develop the protocol and create a process that was simple and easy to operate.
To make this less odious, I created a template with headliners and obligatory requirement e.g. data protection, client confidentiality, as well as suggested methods. This template proved ideal for the partners to work through and enabledus to finalise the protocol by the end of the meeting.
The partnership had not allocated any funding for referral database/IT, so researching what was available either free of change or at very low cost was the next thing that I need to be done.
How to transfer client’s information electronically needed to be considered;
- How much information needed to be transferred between partners?
- How we could do this securely?
- What was available? As partners have their own client management systems,possible online options wereSharePoint, Huddle or Dropbox.
Having investigated the viable options online, Huddle came out as a preferred service. Huddle offered an easy to use platform, which could be accessed by all partners and allowed us to added files and managed the referrals through the Tasks function, as well as, provide timelines and audit trail for monitoring. Huddle also offer a very low subscription fee for voluntary organisations for up to 25 users, which would be sufficient to meet our requirements.
Part of our project requirements was to set up a telephone consultancy service between partners, which we launch in November,providing advisers with additionalspecialist advice support for their clients and proved an ideal sounding board for referrals.
Before implementing the referral process training would need to be developed across the partners and their staff.
Using Huddle as our platform as well as the agreed referral process enabled me to create training manuals and working with CAB’s IT support developed training with screen shots for Petra. This was delivered via Skype over a number of sessions to CAB staff. All managers and session supervisors were given one to one training and practices.
Areferrals ‘Go Live’ flyer was send to all the partners to ensure that their staff and volunteers were fully aware the referral process was now up and running.
See stage diagram below