A DIGITAL tool helping thousands of people at risk in Bury during the coronavirus pandemic has won a national award.
The Community Hubs app, developed by Bury Council with Microsoft and Manchester-based ICT company ANS, won the Society for Innovation, Technology and Modernization (SOCITM) Partner Recognition Award.
Nicky Parker, who managed the community hubs, said: “The app was developed and deployed very quickly in the first month of the Covid outbreak to keep track of all the tasks that arose when residents of Bury called the Covid hotline and asked for assistance.
“It creates tasks in the contact center and automatically forwards them to one of Bury’s five community hubs, where the task is taken over by the employees of the hub. They contact the resident to find out the type of assistance needed and then, if the task is still needed, it will be turned over to one of the 800 residents who have volunteered to assist the hubs.
“This is often an invitation to shop for someone who is extremely clinically vulnerable, shielded, or self-isolating. Other support includes collecting medicines from local pharmacies and referring them to partners like Age UK for friendship calls, mental health organizations, CAB for debt relief and other advice and referrals to one of Bury’s boards.
There is also support from the Council’s Income and Benefits team for Social Benefits and Self Isolation Grants and referrals to integrated neighborhood teams for health or social care needs.
“The hubs act as the only place in the neighborhoods to coordinate support for residents, and the app has been at the heart of that to make sure all tasks are recorded, tracked and completed. It’s a mobile app that is available to anyone in the hub system on a mobile phone, making it accessible, easy to use and instantly available. ”
Cllr Richard Gold, Cabinet Member for Communities, said, “We owe a great debt to the hundreds of Bury employees in our community hubs who have helped the most vulnerable in our society weather the worst of the pandemic.
“This app made your job a lot easier, and we are delighted about the recognition by SOCITM and thank Microsoft and ANS for their development support.”