Autism Together

Wanting to move away from multiple spreadsheets and Word documents, Autism Together has worked in partnership with Unique IQ since 2018, developing a custom version of our IQ:careplanner rostering software.

Across the UK, Autism Together provides support to people with autism. Its services include a wide range of independent living options such as residential living, day services such as home care and supported living, and community support such as work experience and teaching life skills. 

The Challenge

Autism Together began looking for a new software solution in early 2017. Having previously used Microsoft Word to manage staff rotas and a spreadsheet for overseeing staff annual leave, it became apparent a complete care management system was required.

Staff at Autism Together would often spend hours completing paperwork for sickness, staff accidents, unauthorised absences, expenses and overtime. Additional processing was required for managing overtime as this had to be manually checked against rotas in Microsoft Word and then input into a separate timesheet package that linked to the payroll system. 

Alongside staff management, Autism Together used a variety of software to keep details of the care they provide, including client details, accidents and incidents and client body maps. All of this information required repetitive data entry and was often leading to mistakes, ultimately wasting valuable time as these had to then be manually corrected across all documentation. 

Unhappy with their current system, and their software provider charging an expensive fee whilst offering little support and slow updates, Autism Together began looking for a new supplier in 2017. 

Richard Coward, IT Manager at Autism Together describes the experience: “After several months looking at products, including those offered by some of the “big names” in the care sector, none met our requirements. Towards the end of the search, we came across Unique IQ and specifically, IQ:careplanner. Our panel of around six staff members agreed that this was by far the best product we’d come across and the one that was most suitable for our needs.” 

The Implementation

In 2018, Autism Together began working in partnership with Unique IQ, developing our current IQ:careplanner software to create a customised programme called SIP.

Autism Together say: “The development team are always very helpful and work with us to ensure our requirements are met, with a willingness to develop the system to meet our needs. When we urgently need something sorting, it always gets done.”

One of the main goals for Autism Together was to link client diaries, staff rotas, staff absences (including annual leave, sickness and unauthorised leave) and staff overtime into one place. Thanks to Unique IQ’s development of IQ:careplanner, the new system brought all of this information together and automatically highlighted a staff shortage on shifts, allowing cover to be quickly arranged. 

The Results 

Since the launch of the system, Autism Together has spent considerably less time on duplicating data, manual processes and correcting errors. Currently used by 1704 members of staff, there have been very few negative issues, and they have all been resolved swiftly.

Richard says “We’re very glad we decided to opt for IQ:careplanner. We are very pleased with all of the development work that has been done to customise the product to meet our ever-increasing requirements.”