Essex Sight

What size is the organisation?

We have 3 full-time and 3 part-time staff, plus 13 volunteers, but we cover a huge area, right across Essex.

When did Essex Sight start using Charitylog?

We started in 2020. In the pandemic, it really came into its own: most staff were working from home and going out to do socially distanced home visits. Using Charitylog, they could quickly make notes on cases, and if it was more than one person visiting someone they could each add comments to the case notes.

Before that we were just using spreadsheets, which was challenging to say the least!

Which version of Charitylog do you use?

Charitylog Plus, integrated with Devon In Sight’s Sight Loss MOT framework.

What do you use Charitylog for?

We mostly use it for KPI and other reporting, for case notes and recording contacts. It’s great for all these.

Was it easy to get started?

Yes, once you know the basics. We like the fact that they get you all set up, show you how to use it, but then you’re in control – a bit like jumping in a hire car!

We soon learned all the benefits of having a really good cloud-based database and how it would help us in our day-to-day work. We built up a brilliant picture of all of our clients using Charitylog.

We bought tablets because they're light and easier to carry about than a clunky laptop. And of course, you can patch in to your mobile phone too.

We like having enough control to make changes – but also the reassurance that someone in the Charitylog support team is at the other end of the phone or email. We also arrange a top-up training session with Charitylog once a year, just to make sure we’re getting the most out of the system.

How is it going so far?

Very well! In fact, Charitylog was instrumental in us winning a contract with the county council, because of the detailed facts and figures we could provide.

Essex County Council announced that they were renewing their Sensory Contract and wanted to know more about the work the voluntary organisations were doing with sensory impaired people. They didn’t have a full understanding of the number of people we were working with and wanted to know more.

We used the example of Charitylog as a secure method of recording data. Using Charitylog and the Sight Loss MOT bolt-on, we were able to demonstrate how we could record assessments, and how it could all be tracked and is fully auditable. They were absolutely blown away.

Would you recommend Charitylog?

Charitylog is brilliant; I would recommend it to anyone. And it works very well with the Sight Loss MOT bolt-on.

Prior to Charitylog, our team worked specifically in certain parts of Essex, and didn’t necessarily know the clients who lived in other parts. But we deal with vast number of people now. Everyone’s essentially interchangeable because everything's held in one place on Charitylog.

The county council love it too, because now they've got a huge picture of the other statutory bodies and the voluntary bodies that we work with, postcode demographics and so on. There’s a clear line between being able to present all this detailed data to the county council and then the council actually taking action to improve things and make them more equitable across the county.

We’re quite passionate about it, because it just makes our lives so much easier. We would encourage anyone to make the investment and get Charitylog.