Two councils in Greater Manchester have begun to use a new app for digitising early years assessments of young children.
Bury and Rochdale Councils have become the first to go live with the app, developed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) with the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership and app developer Objectivity.
It is built on the Greater Manchester Digital Platform, which was created last year to support information sharing in health and social care in the city, using the Mendix low code platform for software development.
The app is being used to review a child’s development up to the age of 2.5 years, enabling parents and carers to complete assessments and access records online.
This is aimed at helping health visitors to identify any developmental issues and provide support early. It should also free up clinical time for health visiting teams, with an estimate it will be worth around £10 million per year in productivity once rolled out across Greater Manchester.
GMCA said it will help to reduce the need for physical appointments during the Covid-19 pandemic.
When the pilot was announced in February GMCA said the app will be made available throughout the city region next year
Joining up services
Councillor Sean Fielding, GMCA lead for employment, skills and digital, said: “In Greater Manchester we are dedicated to investing in digital transformation that benefits our residents. The new Early Years Application is helping to join up our public services to help parents and carers access the support they need quickly and efficiently.
“The Early Years App is one of the many innovative projects that sit on the Greater Manchester Digital Platform, which was developed to help transform and digitise our public services. The launch of this application has helped us get one step closer to achieving our digital ambitions for Greater Manchester.”
Image by Quinn Dombrowski CC BY-SA 2.0
