Councils offered free access to Community Helper software during COVID-19 crisis

Civica has developed new Community Helper software in conjunction with Liverpool City Council and made the platform available for free to local authorities for the next six months

Building on the iCasework cloud platform, Community Helper allows councils to co-ordinate support to their most vulnerable residents during the current pandemic. It offers a way to manage requests securely, with smart routing to rapidly match and direct incoming demand to service providers, volunteers or other agencies who are able to help. 

iCasework software is already used by 150 organisations in the UK and internationally. The digital platform is easy to use, quick to implement and highly secure, meaning Community Helper can be operational within hours and requires no volunteer training. It also helps council teams to understand demand and request status with ensure rapid reporting. 

Executive Director Steve Thorn said: “Local authorities are using a variety of means to manage lists of vulnerable people, which is a significant challenge given the enormous increase in demand together with the need to maintain safeguarding and data security. Working with Liverpool City Council, we’ve created a simple solution that enables them to quickly import existing shield lists and manage these systematically, ensuring they know exactly who is doing what and with up-to-the-minute status of every case.” 

The solution also allows local authorities to adapt the order in which tasks are undertaken, for example prioritising deliveries based on how much food vulnerable people have left in their homes.

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