This project is no longer active and all user accounts are now disabled. It is archived here for reference purposes only.

Examples on online marketplaces

Shop4support

This social enterprise was set up jointly in 2004 by personalisation organisation, In Control, and the e-procurement company, Valueworks. It offers service users, their families and carers a choice of products and services ranging from equipment to aid everyday living to nursing care or legal and financial advice. Users can search by postcode to receive listings and other customers' ratings for all kinds of services, including nursing care and personal and domestic support. They can also manage their finances through "myaccount" which keeps track of their individual budgets and planned future expenditure.

A community section allows members to share experiences and rate the services and equipment they have bought. A "mysupport" function is under development. The UK wide site is open to everyone but currently coverage appears to concentrate mostly on England and Wales. Care providers are not charged for being listed on the site but are charged a transaction fee when services are purchased.

Choose my Care

Choose My Care provides a social care and support services directory aimed at individual budget holders, self funders, brokers and advocates. Users can search, reserve, book and pay for the goods and services they want from service suppliers (care homes, nursing agencies, home care agencies etc). The matching service is free for service users, the care providers being charged a membership fee. The company has extended its services to provide an independent advisory service to visit and report on care homes specified by the client. The service is currently focused on Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Isle of Wight, Dorset and Hampshire.

Slivers-of-Time

While Slivers-of-Time does not offer a direct e-marketplace, it is a pioneer of an online labour market concept that allows people to sell their labour in small blocks, or "slivers", of time. Greenwich Council, Warwickshire County Council and Hertfordshire Council are pioneering Slivers-of-Time. Service users requiring an assistant for, say, an afternoon, log on and are presented with a list of workers, who have been vetted. Training is available on matters such as food hygiene, confidentiality, moving and handling, medication and lone working. Volunteers are supervised and carers and service users have regular reviews. Slivers-of-Time is being used for the Hertfordshire Council's innovative Book Your Own Breaks and Breakaway for Carers.

Book Your Own Breaks

The Book Your Own Breaks service was launched in May 2010 as a secure marketplace for carers to book care support workers themselves, although they can still use Crossroads Care if they do not want to book the service themselves. The care support workers, who can provide personal care, are vetted, trained, supervised and employed by Crossroads Care. Most breaks are funded by council carers' grants.

Breakaway for Carers

Breakaway for Carers is being piloted by Hertfordshire Council and Hounslow Council. The service recruits volunteer sitters to offer companionship to an older or disabled person. The web-based platform provides an infrastructure that enables local authorities and the voluntary sector to better support service provision, giving them a tool to increase the number of active volunteers. The Social Care Card www.socialcarecard.com is expected to be available early in 2012 and addresses the issue of finding trusted workers who have been verified by a trusted organisation.

The Social Care Card

This membership scheme aims to enable social care workers to demonstrate a basic level of knowledge and work to standards set by a regulated service. The worker will also carry work insurance cover through their membership. An individual or organisation using the system can instantly see where they can get care and support and make a choice about hiring a worker, knowing that the person delivering the care and support has been verified to the highest standard. No further information is available at the moment.>

AskTara

AskTara was developed by Community Gateway CIC in partnership with Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands and Joint Improvement Partnership. It offers information and advice about assistive technology (AT)[1] along with ratings and reviews, user blogs, guides and product demonstrations. An interesting and useful feature is the ability to select and compare products.

Deaf 24/7

The Deaf 24/7 site provides a Directory of British Sign Language and deaf related resources. It offers a bookshop which, interestingly, is powered by Amazon.