Technology4Good Awards celebrate charity partnership

13 July 2012 - Get Connected project honoured with top charity award       

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London, 13 July 2012 - Charity Technology Trust (CTT)  and Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) today announced that the Get Connected project has won the "Working Together" award at the Technology4Good Awards.  Get Connected is a joint initiative carried out by CTT, SCIE and Lasa. It delivers technology and technology education to adult care home residents and staff across the UK.

Held at BT's City of London offices, the second annual Technology4Good Awards took place on Friday 6th July.  Journalist and TV presenter, Mariella Frostrup was the compere for the second year running.  The awards honoured a range of charities and businesses whose work has enabled people to improve their lives through the use of IT.

All three charities contributed to the success of Get Connected, which distributed approximately £12 million in funding to the adult social care sector to increase its use of technology, which led to an improvement in the quality of care it was able to deliver.* More than 75,000 service users and over 80,000 carers and staff in adult social care now have better access to digital technology through the project.

"Collaboration needs to be embraced by the charity sector and it is terrific to see this celebrated by the Technolgoy4Good Awards," said CTT's Chief Executive, Richard Craig.  "The Get Connected project allowed all three of the charities involved to play to their strengths and accomplish something we wouldn’t have been able to do as individual organisations.  We are honoured to be part of the winning team!"

"SCIE has been delighted to be involved in Get Connected and to receive an award honouring our partnership with CTT and Lasa for the project," said SCIE’s Chief Executive, Andrea Sutcliffe. "Get Connected has led to better access to computer equipment and software - people are now seeing the benefits and staff can update their learning more easily, which speaks to the award's purpose of using technology for good.  We hope this win will help to pave the way for us to provide and sustain these improved levels of access to technology in every adult social care service, so that everyone uses it as a matter of routine."

"We're delighted to have been involved in such a great project which shows that technology used appropriately can be a great enabler. It can truly complement offline initiatives such as personalisation in social care, staff learning and development, and approaches to enhanced quality of life," said Aba Maison, head of Lasa’s information systems team.  "The three charity partners worked well together to deliver something which has had a very positive impact on thousands of people.  Each partner showed enormous flexibility, enthusiasm and was really committed to the project and partnership working."

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Notes to editors:

*An independent impact assessment of the Get Connected programme conducted by the Institute for Employment Studies & the National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education found that 88% of managers in residential settings expressed the view that the technology had led to an improvement in the quality of care delivered to their service users

About Charity Technology Trust (CTT). CTT is an impartial, non-profit-making organisation which provides the charitable sector with information technology and support services including hardware, software and support for e-mail marketing and online payments systems. Nearly 15,000 charities across the UK are registered with CTT to receive technology donations of hardware and software. Formed in 2001, CTT is the only UK registered charity devoted to improving the operational efficiency of charities through the use of information technology.
www.ctt.org | www.twitter.com/Charity_Tech

About Lasa.  Lasa is a leading charity and strategic provider of knowledge, support and resources to third sector and government bodies. Lasa helps thousands of organisations across the UK each year including Age UK, Shelter and Citizens Advice Bureau. It helps organisations to get better welfare rights advice to their clients; deliver more effective and efficient services; influences policy for advice and legal services; and raises awareness of the third sector's technology needs with funders and government. 

About SCIE. The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) improves the lives of people who use care services by sharing knowledge about what works. It is an independent charity working with adults, families and children's social care and social work services across the UK. SCIE also works closely with related services such as health care and housing.

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For more information please contact:
Lisa Henshaw
Fourth Day PR
+44 (0)20 7403 4411
lisa@fourthday.co.uk

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