Information & Advice

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The I&A service "matches" Charitylog - or vice versa - pretty well, since Charitylog was actually developed for I&A-type services in the first place. Everything is done with the basic Referrals-and-Contacts structure - no Clubs and Clinics, or Rostering, to worry about.

The most important thing with I&A is to have a consistent approach to deciding what constitutes a Referral, and to be well aware of what the various buttons on the Contact History page do.




Charitylog Terminology:

A Referral is a "piece of work", which has an opening date and a closing date (and therefore a duration). Essentially, Referral is the Charitylog term for what you'd usually call a Case.

A Contact is an individual activity which is linked to a Referral. This could be any sort of activity - taking a phone call, writing an email, a meeting with the Member, and so on (Confusingly, a Contact could be something where you do not in fact have any contact with the Member). Contacts sit within Referrals. You can't store a Contact without attaching it to a Referral. A Referral can have one or many Contacts.

An Action is a reminder or a task, sent to someone (can be you, or another user of the system). Actions show up in two places:

  • On the Action List of the user nominated to do the Action
  • On the Contact History tab of the Member that the Action relates to

Actions are "cleared" by storing a Contact against them.



"New Referral" button[edit source]

On every Member's page, there is a "New Referral" button in the top right hand corner.

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 11.37.07.png

This should only be used if you're sure that you want to start recording a new Referral (a new "piece of work", a new "case" etc). It's best to check the Contact History tab to see what Referrals are there already.


Buttons on the Contact History tab[edit source]

Extra Info[edit source]

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 12.12.07.png

The Extra Info button appears at the top of Referrals in the Contact History tab. It lets you record a Contact on an existing Referral. Optionally, you can also create an Action at the same time.

This is the button to use if you want to record the fact that you've done something within an ongoing piece of work. It's the most commonly-used button.


Further Action[edit source]

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 12.12.16.png

The Further Action button appears at the top of Referrals in the Contact History tab. It lets you create an Action linked to that Referral.

This is the button to use if you only want to set up a task or reminder, but don't want to record any "work done".


Update[edit source]

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 12.12.31.png

The Update button appears on Actions, and therefore is found in two places:

  • On the Action List of the user nominated to do the Action
  • On the Contact History tab of the Member that the Action relates to




Extra data gathering[edit | edit source]

As well as the usual stuff within Charitylog - counting time spent on contacts, external referrals, that sort of thing - the Information And Advice project needs some extra data to be captured.


Codes[edit | edit source]

The first data is the coding. Charitylog has a standard feature to attach Age UK codes to I&A activity. Click the "Age UK Codes" button at the bottom of the Record a Contact screen to open the code window.

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 12.38.24.png


On the first Contact in each Referral, entering a code (or codes) is compulsory - you won't be allowed to save the page until you've entered them. On subsequent Contacts, you can add more codes to that Referral if appropriate, but you won't be forced to.

You can write the code if you know it, or select by using the drop-down boxes if not.

Codes.gif


I&A Monitoring Info[edit | edit source]

The second set of extra data is some extra fields to capture information that RBKC ask for as part of their reporting requirements. These fields are generally self explanatory. If you have any questions about them, contact Tasio.

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 12.32.33.png


This set of fields will automatically appear after every Contact, and can be filled in whenever you have the information - apart from the red fields, which are compulsory from the start.


EON[edit | edit source]

There is also a set of fields that can be used to capture information that specifically relates to EON. These only need to be filled in for EON-related activity - you can click "Continue Without Saving" for other activity.

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 14.09.03.png


Closing Referrals[edit | edit source]

Referrals in Information & Advice need to be manually closed.

The Referral Closure screen can be accessed either by clicking the "Not Closed" or "Outcome" links on the Referral Summary tab...

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 14.21.50.png


...or by clicking the "Outcome Details" button on the Record a Contact screen.

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 14.22.19.png


You will be taken to the closure screen, with various fields available.

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 14.25.07.png


  • Referral Closure Date
  • Outcome Notes - these can be printed on a report later
  • Simple Outcome - usually important for reporting.
  • Subcategory if applicable
  • Date Awarded - relates to the following two fields...
  • Monetary Outcome, Arrears Obtained - generally used for tracking financial and benefit-related gains, but should only be used if the main Benefits feature is not being used. Figures entered here may not be counted towards the quarter's benefits total.


Benefits[edit | edit source]

How to enter Benefit information[edit | edit source]

Every piece of Benefit information can have several key dates associated with it:

  • Date Applied - the date of the actual application according to DWP
  • Date Notified - the date we found out the final decision of the benefit application/appeal
  • Date Awarded - the date when DWP started paying the weekly benefit
  • Date Ended

Charitylog specifies "Please enter at least one date along with the selected benefit", but at our meeting on the 20th May (2019) we identified that the most important date to log is the Date Notified. We can guarantee that whatever benefit you're applying for, there will always be a definite point when you find out that the benefit is going to be paid [99% of cases] or not [1%]. If you always log this Date Notified, then we can base all the reports on this date.

  • RBKC want a report at the end of each quarter. Any benefits notified in that quarter will be counted towards the report.
  • Make sure that you keep benefit notifications up to date, particularly at the end of the quarter. If the data entry for benefit notifications gets behind, that risks information being missed from the report.

Adding Benefits from the Outcome screen[edit | edit source]

Benefits can also be added from the Outcome screen. Clicking the "display benefits" button will allow you to enter any benefits/grants etc that have been obtained as part of this Referral.

The main Charitylog manual has a section on benefits, which can be found here.


Adding Benefits directly from the Member's record[edit | edit source]

As well as adding benefits on the "Outcome" screen, you can also add benefit information directly from someone's Details page - useful if you've forgotten to add them on a Referral. However, if you do this and you want the benefit figures to be linked to a Referral, you need to make this link manually, as shown below...

Click the "Benefits & Income" link at the bottom of the Member Details page.

Screen Shot 2018-12-04 at 15.41.44.png


Click "Enter New Benefit" to add a line of information.

Screen Shot 2018-12-04 at 15.41.57.png


The format is roughly the same as you'll find on the Outcome screen, except for the opportunity to link the information to a specific referral, which is marked in red in the screenshot below. Specify a Referral here if you want the benefits to count towards the reporting totals for that Referral.

Screen Shot 2018-12-04 at 15.42.09.png



Data Gardener (talk) 08:48, 9 January 2019 (UTC)