Shared Calendar Pathfinder
February-August 2012
Pathfinder Objective
• To trial the use of a shared electronic
appointment system to improve access to
advice services.
• New pilot project aiming to work towards a
more integrated delivery of advice
Partners
Project Lead: B&H CAB
Partners: Amaze, BHT, FED, MACS, B& H MIND
Set-up stage
• Best approach was to identify a few appointments or a
single project for which referrals could be made;
• Start small with one single user/agency;
• Many agencies decided to use Nellbooker only for
project/appointment made available;
• Nellbooker, an opportunity for agencies to advertise
projects with low take-up.
• Due to time pressures and technical matters, it was easier
for the project lead to act as Nellbooker coordinator.
• One implementation office/contact person identified per
agency.
Implementation
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Launch date: 24th April
117 appointments were booked
24 cross agency housing referrals
7 mental health appointments
3 cross agency welfare benefits
83 debt appointments
The Nellbooker experience
• Online referral system. Can be accessed by additional users.
• Ease of use for individual users
• Difficulties in managing(setting-up) calendar. More training
needs to be negotiated with central Nellbooker
administrator
• Cost-effective compared to other appointment systems
(£1000 pa for 2-4 agencies and £2000 pa for 5-10)
• Overall good experience reported by users/agencies.
Feedback by users/agencies
1.
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Did you find the calendar easy to use?
3 Yes
1 Somewhat
2 still to reply
Other comments: “Good to check in advance whether client
had received before advice from the agency”.
“Sometimes the appointments made available on the system
were not suitable to the client’s availability”
Who was the calendar useful to?
• 3 out of 4 replied to the clients
• 2 out of 4 replied to their organisation
• 1 out of 4 replied to my own work.
* Respondents were given the option of ticking all that
applied.
Did you receive as many referrals as expected?
• 2 out of 4 said No
• 1 out of 4 said ‘not sure how many to expect’
• 1 out of 4 said ‘Yes’
Did you make as many referrals as expected?
• 2 out of 4 said yes
• 2 out of 4 said no
• Other comments:
“Very useful in cases where clients contacted our
service too late to be seen by a deadline, we were
able to make an appointment with the Fed, for
example, in time”
Were you satisfied with one person
managing/setting up the calendar?
• 3 out 4 said Yes
• 1 out of 4 answer not valid as question was
misunderstood. Comment below:
“Adviceline workers found the system useful for referring
to other agencies[...]we have many part-time workers
so the system could work well if it can be used by
several people”
What have you learned as a partner of this
pathfinder?
“Very important to have clear guidance and/or a contact
person to know what the referral criteria are”
“Joint working is difficult to get right but other partners
have something really useful to offer”
“The system could potentially be useful for referral duty
staff and developed for Adviceline workers. It might
also be useful for other/new projects within my
agency”
“That it is essential to understand the providers funding
criteria to make effective appointments”
Would you like to use the shared calendar
again?
• 3 out of 4 said Yes
• 1 out of 4 said No
Other comments: “I found that it kept back
appointments that I could have offered and the rate of use
wasn’t high enough to make it worthwhile. It also took
extra time to arrange appointments this way than if the
other partner had got the client to call us. It also had a
higher rate of non attendance than usual appts”
“Yes, although it can be challenging to get a booking done
during busy sessions”
Lessons Learned
• An online shared calendar tool is useful for agencies and
clients.
• Some agencies have by now replaced their own working
calendars with Nellbooker.
• Nellbooker is a cost-effective option which meets most of
the advice sector needs at the moment.
• Continuation of Nellbooker referrals across agencies
requires coordination amongst agencies, therefore more
time and resources by each agency.
Lessons Learned
• Appointments for some agencies had extremely low take-up or no take up
at all. The two main reasons reported for this were the lack of eligible
clients/cases and the lack of available appointments for clients’
preferences. This will required further reviewing.
• Two agencies reported higher no-show rates for appointments booked on
Nellboker (compared to other appointments). This will require further
testing including clients’ feedback.
• The shared electronic calendar has been useful and is welcome by
agencies. For the pathfinder to be developed into a more sustainable
model, agencies will need to decide how much resource they can/are
willing to dedicate to the model and how they can make the most of each
other’s services when helping their clients. The local authority can play a
role by providing incentives to facilitate the continuation of joint
working.
Shared Calendar Pathfinder
Questions & Answers