Kirklees capitalises on the benefits of online claim submission module, LACHSweb for claims and incident reporting.
Background
Kirklees Metropolitan Council has used JCAD LACHS as their primary claims management system since 2005. The system efficiently manages over 2000 claims per annum and provides the Council with powerful reports and audit information. Aside from the core LACHS system the Council also makes use of a range of additional modules. For example Premium Apportionment and the Asset Register modules. More recently, Kirklees Council have seen the expansion of the system to accommodate for the collection of claims and incidents via the web utilising JCAD’s LACHSweb and Health & Safety modules.
Business Situation
Before the purchase of the additional modules, Kirklees Council was processing approximately 2,000 incidents a year through a manual paper based system from some 400 different sources i.e. Schools or internal Council departments. This process was not only time consuming, but also convoluted in that it involved a number of disparate activities in order to get the necessary information to the right departments. Passing the information from one place to another not only left it open to error, but also meant that sometimes business critical information wouldn’t arrive with the appropriate department for up to 2 weeks after the event. Of these 2000 incidents only a small percentage would become actual liability claims. However, with no one single electronic record and some claims not being reported for several years the re-establishment of documentation at the time of receipt of a claim meant that claim management could be extremely difficult. With over 400 departments and a high number of annual incidents and claims, Kirklees Council sought a software solution that would enable Council officials to upload data easily through a system that would also integrate with their existing set up. Furthermore, finding a solution that would aid ownership and accountability of issues and incidents as they arose was high on the agenda. The ability to identify a specific Incident Manager within the LACHS Health & Safety module fulfilled this preference.
Why LACHS?
Kirklees Council attended the JCAD LACHS User Group in 2012 where LACHS V4 was presented and the JCAD LACHSWeb module showcased. As a long term partner of JCAD LACHS, Kirklees Council immediately saw the benefits to be made of utilising the online module as well as the associated benefits of integrating this with the Health & Safety Incident reporting functionality. The flexible design of the system means that Kirklees Council are now able to accommodate requests from their partners to help improve their own efficiencies. A good example of this is for schools that often need more than one registration for LACHSWeb such as Health & Safety and a Claims contact with separate responsibilities both needing access to the system. ‘It was an easy decision for Kirklees Council to purchase JCAD LACHSWeb and Health & Safety. We have worked with JCAD LACHS for 9 years and it has always delivered everything we need from a Claims Handling system. We see the addition of the LACHSWeb and Health & Safety module as an asset to the council and the way we conduct our business,’ Paul Waugh, Principle Risk and Insurance Officer.
Benefits
Since JCAD LACHS was installed in 2005, Kirklees Council has realized a number of benefits. The improved productivity of staff and the more effective management of claims have undoubtedly reduced claim values. Additionally, departmental savings within the Insurance Team have been estimated at up to £100,000 p.a. This saving has been achieved despite the Kirklees Council Risk Management & Insurance team seeing a tangible increase in their workload over the course of the last few years. The ability to manage this increase has only been possible with the support of the software to automate tasks and streamline and improve processes. Furthermore, implementing the JCAD LACHSWeb and Health & Safety modules has enabled a change to the process for capturing and managing incident data. Council officials are now able to independently upload incident related information direct through the web. As the information is captured centrally and is therefore immediately assessable by the Council’s Corporate Health & Safety Unit, any time delay in receipt of information is entirely negated. This enables the Council’s Corporate Safety Advisers to step in and conduct additional investigation without delay, thereby maximizing risk management. It has also removed the need for the information to be sent separately to the payroll and personnel department as the information is readily available for auditing purposes through various search criteria in the LACHS system. The implementation of the system, has enabled the Health & Safety department to improve efficiencies by 50%. and Health & Safety staff are now expanding their role beyond administrative tasks and are able to review individual cases, more readily identifying where safety advisors should be involved and proactively chasing people for information such as ‘˜return to work’ dates. Since the roll out of the new process in April 2013, Kirklees Council has seen over 1,300 Incidents uploaded to the system which has made worthwhile contributions to much needed savings in manual and administrative time. Incident managers can now review their own case loads.
The Future
The electronic claim and incident reporting facilities have currently been rolled out to the Council’s 172 Schools and to the separate Schools Facilities Management and Transport section, some of which work from home via VPN connections. Having seen the benefits that JCAD LACHSWeb & Health & Safety can bring for the Council, the Streetscene and Housing directorate (which encompasses highways, waste collection, transport & housing) are keen to use the system at an Incident reporting level not only to record basic incident details but also to ensure information is captured and documents stored at the outset (such as Risk Assessments and Training Records) so that this information can then easily be pulled into the Claims system as required.
