Social Charter Platform in Cascais

Challenge:

Cascais faced issues with fragmented social services data, leading to inefficiencies in how citizens accessed and used support systems. Information on services like housing, elderly care, and support for vulnerable populations was scattered across different organisations, resulting in confusion for both service providers and beneficiaries. The municipality needed a centralised, user-friendly platform to consolidate this critical information, enabling more informed decision-making and facilitating better service delivery to citizens in need.

Approach:

The Cascais Social Charter is a digital platform that centralises data from various social service providers, offering information about public, charitable, and private-profit social services in Cascais. It details their characteristics, locations, and support entities. Besides being informative, it aids in diagnosing social resources and supports political decision-making for planning social services. The platform organises information into 11 action areas, updated annually by each entity. It serves citizens seeking social services, social service managers and employees, professionals in the social economy, researchers, academics, consultants, and public administration decision-makers.By providing clear, updated, and accessible information, the Social Charter allows citizens to easily find relevant services, while helping the municipality to plan and distribute resources more efficiently. It also serves as a communication hub between citizens, social organisations, and the local government, improving transparency and collaboration. The data undergoes little or no transformation. The information is presented in a textual and visual form (e.g. maps and pins) as digital leaflets with the most important points on any given topic.

Outcomes:

The implementation of the Social Charter platform in Cascais has significantly improved accessibility by consolidating all social service information in one platform, reducing confusion from decentralised sources. The system allows for the registration of entities and social responses, continuously updates information, and provides search capabilities for these registered entities and responses. Additionally, it offers statistics and analysis for monitoring and evaluating the quality of the services provided. It has also enabled more efficient resource planning, allowing the municipality to track service demand and gaps for better resource allocation. Furthermore, the platform has enhanced collaboration among service providers by offering a unified communication channel, facilitating better coordination and more effective sharing of resources. 

Data Sources:

The data for the Social Charter platform was sourced from various local social service organisations in Cascais, which regularly update the platform with information on services like housing, elder care, and disability support. Additionally, the platform integrates data from the municipality’s internal systems to provide a comprehensive view of service availability, demand, and utilisation. 

Additional Information:

• https://quidgest.com/en/case-study/social-charter-of-camara-municipal-de-cascais/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/quidgest-cascais-municipality-win-equality-inclusion-award-cities-oes8f/

Point of Contact:

• quidgestquidgest [dot] com (quidgest[at]quidgest[dot]com)