Delay to encompass Children’s Social Work and Social Care module

Published:

Northern Ireland will be among the first in the world to integrate Health and Social Care into a single patient record and whilst some Community Social Work services have implemented the system safely, ongoing work within the children’s build is still required and will not be ready for Belfast Trust Go-Live on 6th June 2024.

Following a specially convened summit on January 26th 2024, a recommendation was made that the implementation of the encompass Children’s Social Work and Social Care module will be rescheduled to align with development of critical system build.

The Epic and encompass teams are working on a timeline for regional Go-Live that will be shared when available but unfortunately, this is likely to be beyond 2025.

Safety of the child and their family is paramount in all we do and continues to be the foremost consideration in the development of the encompass build in Children’s Social Work/Care Services.

encompass and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will continue to progress system build in preparation for a future Children’s Social Care Go-Live. A regionally-led programme sub-board will be established to focus specifically on the area of Children’s Social Care. Further communications on progress will be made available on a regular basis during this process.

The public can be assured that this decision will not negatively affect the vital work that Trusts undertake supporting children.

Page last updated: 21 February 2024