Why Evo, Why Now

Local authorities are managing complexity on an unprecedented scale.

Adult social care teams face fragmented systems that fail to support integrated care pathways, while technology enabled care (TEC) initiatives struggle to scale without the digital infrastructure to support proactive insights, telecare devices, and data integration across health and social care.

Children's social care teams juggle referrals, assessments, and case management across disparate systems. SEND coordinators struggle with platforms that weren't designed for the nuances of Education, Health and Care Plans. Youth services teams work with technology that can't identify those at risk of becoming NEET early enough to intervene effectively.

The cost of this fragmentation can be seen through poorer outcomes for people, a higher cost of service for the local authority, hours lost duplicating data entry, missed opportunities for early intervention, and with frustrated professionals who entered public service to help families not to battle outdated technology.

Funding pressures only intensify these challenges. With £3.6 billion in proposed cuts to local authority budgets announced in the Autumn Statement 2024, councils in England must do more with less. Yet many are locked into legacy systems that require expensive customisation, lack interoperability, and can't adapt to rapidly changing policy requirements. A similar story is playing out in Scotland and Wales too, with Scottish councils making budget cuts to deal with a financial shortfall, whilst in Wales the Welsh Government has promised £169 million in further investment but opposition party Plaid Cymru stating that is far short of the £560 million budget required

This is what The Access Group will solve with our ‘new home’ concept. Our solutions are inter-connected by Access Evo, to provide one familiar space and a seamless experience that offers accurate records, intelligent data analytics, and intuitive assistance to help with workloads.

Evo is The Access Group's next-generation platform for local government; a unified technology foundation designed to support the entire continuum of social care, whether that’s children’s, youth, or adult services, and SEND provisions.

Traditional software solutions within your authority are typically built for a single department, which actively contributes to the fragmentation problem. Access Evo is different. It provides a foundational view for your staff. It's built on modern cloud architecture; with AI capabilities embedded at its core, not bolted on as an afterthought. The platform enables genuine data sharing across service boundaries while maintaining the specific workflows and requirements of each discipline.

Evo powers our suite of local government solutions: Mosaic for social care, Adam for adult social care, and Assure for quality assurance and compliance. But rather than operating as separate software products, these solutions share a common technological foundation that enables them to work together seamlessly.

More than that, Evo supports your staff productivity with an array of tools. Regardless of their Access product mix - whether that’s embedded AI capabilities, encrypted messaging, or audio transcription - all tools can be connected to your core Access products.

The platform's design reflects a simple truth: families don't experience services in isolation. A young person receiving support from youth services may also have SEND needs. A child with an EHC Plan might require safeguarding intervention. An adult receiving care support may have family members also known to children's services, or require coordinated support that spans health and social care. Evo's architecture acknowledges this reality and seeks to unify services rather than leave them operating independently, and that shared knowledge can have huge benefits.

Three converging factors make this the critical moment for local government technology transformation.

1) Regulatory and policy pressure has reached a tipping point. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill will fundamentally reshape how councils deliver children's services and SEND provision. The SEND and AP Improvement Plan demands better outcomes from a system already under severe strain. Meanwhile, Ofsted's updated Education Inspection Framework raises the bar for what good looks like. In adult social care, CQC inspections under the new single assessment framework place unprecedented scrutiny on quality, safety, and outcomes, and there are still the findings of the Casey Commission to come in 2026 on viability of a National Care Service – a change that would affect England primarily but would have a knock on effect in how health and care services interact.

The Care Act 2014 has requirements for integrated care in England, the Social Services and Well-being Act 2014 covers Wales, the Public Bodies (Joint Working) Act 2014 covers Scotland, and the Health and Social Care Act 2022 is for Northern Ireland. These pieces of legislation, combined with evolving regulations around digital care records and safeguarding, demand technology that can demonstrate compliance in real-time. Local authorities need technology that can adapt to policy changes in months, not years.

2) AI has matured beyond the hype. The AI capabilities we want are available today, not theoretical future promises, and can genuinely transform how local government works – especially commissioning.

Within Evo is Copilot, a virtual assistant that can answer questions based on your work and data. Spaces is home to everything from messages to data analytics, and Feed tracks all team activity to show progress with ongoing tasks or duties. Your dashboard is also customisable, so it can host the tools you need to make informed strategic decisions, all driven by real-time data, and glean outcome-based insights from market shaping, quality assurance and supplier management.

Evo supports every stage of the commissioning cycle, ensuring services meet local needs and deliver measurable impact, track provider performance, align contracts with outcomes and ensure value for money, all within a single integrated platform.

From helping practitioners identify patterns across cases to automating administrative tasks that consume hours of professional time, AI built into a platform like Evo offers practical, immediate value. But only if it's implemented thoughtfully within systems designed for local government's unique ethical and regulatory requirements.

3) The workforce crisis demands technological support. Social workers, SEND coordinators, and youth workers are leaving the sector at alarming rates, citing unsustainable workloads and administrative burden. Technology won't solve recruitment and retention alone, but intelligent systems that reduce bureaucracy and enable professionals to focus on direct work with families are no longer optional - they're essential to maintaining services.

Local authorities are also increasingly recognising that digital transformation isn't about having multiple specialist systems that don't communicate. The integration costs, data quality issues, and user experience problems of fragmented technology estates are no longer acceptable when budgets are under severe pressure.

Evo's unified approach delivers benefits that extend beyond individual service areas.

For adult social care, it means a reduction in siloed data. Integration bridges the gaps between systems and solutions, providing one big picture of a citizen and their needs.

This has huge potential for carers: one record of an individual, rather than multiple records across multiple systems, would save time and improve the accuracy of information. The link-up from Access Evo could provide you with data from Mosaic, Adam, or Assure, and that unity makes sure no detail is missed and no opportunity to better a citizen’s life is wasted.

For children and families, it means information doesn't get lost at service boundaries. A child's SEND needs are visible to social care when required. Youth services can see the full picture when assessing a young person's circumstances. This isn't about creating a surveillance system; it's about ensuring that support is coordinated and informed.

For practitioners, Evo reduces the administrative burden that pushes talented professionals out of the sector. AI-powered tools handle routine tasks. Unified data means entering information once, not repeatedly across multiple systems. Intuitive interfaces designed with user input mean less time wrestling with technology and more time supporting families.

For service leaders and commissioners, the platform provides unprecedented visibility across the entire children's services landscape. Real-time data enables proactive decision-making rather than reactive crisis management. Reporting that would take weeks to compile manually becomes available at the click of a button. Budget pressures can be addressed with accurate intelligence about demand, capacity, and outcomes.

For local authority executives and elected members, Evo represents a foundation for sustainable digital transformation. Rather than perpetual cycles of system replacement, the platform evolves continuously. Cloud-based architecture eliminates costly infrastructure management. And crucially, investment in Evo isn't locked to a single department, it's a strategic asset supporting multiple service areas.

The challenges facing local government won't ease in the years ahead. Demand for children's services continues to rise. The SEND crisis will require sustained, systemic change. Adult social care faces an ageing population with increasingly complex needs, while workforce recruitment and retention challenges affect both children's and adult services. Funding constraints are the new normal.

Technology alone won't solve these problems. But the right technology - unified, intelligent, and built specifically for local government's unique requirements - can be a powerful enabler of the transformation that's needed.

Evo represents our commitment to building that technology; a platform designed for the long term, and one capable of evolving alongside policy, practice, and the needs of the families who depend on local government services.

For local authorities facing the question of how to modernise their technology infrastructure while managing unprecedented pressures, the answer isn't to delay or to invest in yet another standalone system. It's to build on a foundation designed for integration, intelligence, and continuous evolution.

That's why Evo. And that's why now.