ECINS’ Heather Ette spoke to Toni Keryell- Emmerson, a MOVEON east Employment Adviser working as part of the 180 Degree Norfolk team in Norwich.

HE: What is your role within the IOM Team and how does ECINS fit into the work you do?

TKE: MOVEON east, part of Stonham, is a charitable organisation providing a resettlement service for offenders in Norfolk. My role is to help get clients ‘job ready’ by helping to create CVs, obtain ID and open bank accounts and assist with job applications. I also provides advice and guidance around training, employment and apprenticeship opportunities. Very often the clients have been in and out of prison and have lost all their paperwork so I often need to liaise with various organisations to get the information they need. I work solely within the 180 Degrees Norfolk team along with Probation, Police, Stonham, Matthew Project and substance misuse support workers. All agencies input their various client interventions into ECINS to maintain an effective information sharing database which enables all parties to always have the most up to date information on all areas of the clients lives.

HE: Do you use ECINS as a stand alone system?

TKE: Each agency or organisation within the 180 Degrees Norfolk team has their own IT systems and procedures that must be kept up to date with client information. Personally, I maintain MOVEON east client intervention records, the CATS database for the Job Deal contract and the ECINS database. It is definitely worth a bit of cut and pasting as ECINS is a really good tool to use when working with our client group. Everything can change on a day to day basis, their lives can be turned upside down in a moment. If I’m out of the office for a few days and my colleagues need to see how a particular client is engaging with me they can just look on ECINS. It makes for very efficient information sharing.

HE: Does it enable you and your partners to be more collaborative in the way you work?

TKE: Yes definitely. The clients benefit from a joined up service that our team provides, because there is constant communication with the team. Sometimes there are different versions of stories from the clients and having everything noted in ECINS gives us the true picture. We can provide a united front as we are all singing from the same hymn sheet.

HE: Is E-CINS helping you provide a better service?

TKE: I believe so. In the past clients would come and see me at MOVEON east and I would not be allowed to share their information with any other organisation or agency unless my clients signed a consent form and there would have to be a good reason to do that. What we have now is a really effecfive way of working with this client group. All the information is captured and recorded on a daily basis so we all have a much better understanding of what is happening in our clients’ often chaotic lives and we’re aware of the support – or lack of – that they are getting.

HE: Has using ECINS helped improve your relationship with your partners?

TKE: 180 Degrees Norfolk is split into three parts, the largest team is in Norwich and there are smaller teams in Gt Yarmouth and Kings Lynn. Since working in a multi-agency environment, I believe the interaction between all of the agencies and organisations has improved dramatically. When ECINS was introduced the transparency it offers and the ability to access partner’s information even if they are away from the office is a huge advantage to the whole team.