It's always fantastic to be able to share success stories of our customers and none more so when it comes to having such a huge impact on a local community. Middlesbrough Council, based in the North East of England, have been using Objective Connect integrated into their Objective ECM solution to improve collaboration across child-welfare authorities and local police.

Despite the best efforts of child-protection authorities, a number of children go missing every year in the Middlesbrough area. Their absence triggers a local search that may take hours and involve dozens of people across the council, police and other organisations. Yet with existing phone and email-based processes proving too inefficient or insecure for their needs, it became clear that it was time for a better alternative.

Transforming local communities with digital collaboration

With Objective Connect, Middlesbrough Council quickly realised they could offer Police a more efficient, resource-effective way to collaborate on missing children. Pre-populated forms save time in conveying family contact details to police, and templates allow rapid creation of formal missing plans to guide the location process. With 32 participants from multiple agencies, versioning controls ensure that all relevant project staff have access to the latest updated information through the course of the missing youth investigation.

Rob Hamer, Registered Manager of a Middlesbrough Council Children's Home said, "You just drop the information into Objective Connect and everybody knows about it immediately, thanks to the live notifications. Live information is shared so much more quickly, and people can respond quickly as well. There's more time looking for children rather than just trying to put reports through."

"With more comprehensive information in the workspace rather than over the phone, Objective Connect has given us a 360-degree view of the child", said Rob, "which has had a massive impact on our care planning for that child. We can continue working together online, collaborating efficiently until we get the email about that young person's return."

Read more about Middlesbrough Council's success in this case study.