Community support:

- Local Authorities
- Market Insights
- Education Management
- Youth Services
- Core+ Resources
Technology Enabled Care
Case Studies

Core+ and Synergy Professional Services

Enhance your software solutions with targeted training to achieve peak efficiency.

Introducing new software can be challenging. Resistance to change and gaps in workforce skills often complicate the integration of new digital technologies into daily operations.

Equip your team with comprehensive training, thorough health checks, and tailored consultancy services. Ensure that your local configurations are properly maintained and documented, compliance with legislation is upheld, and specific support is provided to address your local authority's needs. This approach will leave your team confident, capable, and skilled to make informed decisions for your community.

Speak to a Synergy consultant Speak to a Core+ consultant

Meet the team

From implementation and onboarding to ongoing support, we offer a range of services designed to help your local authority maximize the benefits of Synergy and Core+. Our team of consultant's blends flexibility with structure, delivering tailored support and guidance that align with your local authority’s goals and priorities.

Whether you are a long-time customer or just beginning your journey with us, our experienced team is ready to assist you throughout your digital transformation. At The Access Group, we understand the evolving needs of local authorities and are committed to providing continuous support at every stage of your journey. Our professional services are designed to help you now and, in the future, enabling more strategic planning and growth.

Jayne Rushton

Jayne joined The Access Group in 2014 initially as a Pre-sales Consultant demonstrating to Local Authorities the benefits of purchasing systems that support professionals in Social Care, Early Help and Children and Family Centre’s. She changed her role in 2017 becoming an Application Consultant in the Professional Services Team, Jayne implements multiple Synergy Education Systems into Local Authorities, bringing the knowledge and experience she has gained from working in Local Authority Children’s & Adult Services, Education and ICT for over 15 years to consultancy and training.

Jayne’s key focus is to ensure that customers of The Access Group have the ability and skills to use our systems to their full potential. Jayne specializes in Synergy Case Management, which supports Children & Family Centre’s, Professional Support Services and Special Educational Needs as well other Synergy Modules for Early Years, and Free school meals. Her role involves:

Reviewing and configuring business processes and implementing these into Synergy modules.
Delivering workshops, training and supporting customers on-site and remotely to enable them to enhance their knowledge and experience of our software.
Offering Health Checks and bespoke consultancy to enable the customer to achieve the best outcomes.
Delivering Refresher sessions to the customers, who may need to enhance their skills and knowledge in certain areas of the software.

Claire Lacey

Claire Lacey is the Application Services Manager supported by application consultants each with knowledge of the entire Synergy and Core+ suite of education and case management solutions.

Claire is highly motivated with experience in both the private and public sector and has a proven track record of providing exemplary levels of service and is proud of her excellent working relationships with her customers. Bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience gained from working in Local Authorities. Responsibilities includes business process reviews, system configuration, end user training and reporting.

Experience:

12 years working for a local authority as an administrator of the Synergy system.
11 years working as an application consultant implementing our software solutions.
Responsible for the smooth running of implementation projects. Involving taking customers from business process review through system configuration to end user training and go live.
Providing health check reviews of current system processes and challenging LA’s on their working practices in order to ensure they are getting the full benefits of the system.
Delivery of on-site and remote application consultancy, application training to both new and existing clients.

Jen Franklin

Jen offers many years of experience in the support of the Synergy Suite covering all modules available.

After working as a Synergy Application Support Consultant for many years and managing Local Government Support, Jen has returned to her focus – the customer. Delivering training on all aspects of the Synergy suite with a personal and in-depth approach ensuring the customer gets what they need and tailoring the delivery to fit the audience be it Central IT, Managers or End Users.

Through Jen’s experience and knowledge, she offers multiple services including specialising in:

Special Educational Needs Case Management implementation consultancy and workshops.
Education Support (Pupil Support Services) Case Management implementation consultancy and workshops.
Family Information Service and Early Years Funding implementation consultancy and workshops.
Admissions implementation consultancy, national offer day health checks and workshops.
Report Writing training for Case Management and Education.

James Walsh

After achieving a degree in Mathematics, James then qualified as a teacher, and taught Math's for a couple of years.

James was first introduced to Synergy when joining the Support team in 2021. James has worked with many customers to ensure a positive experience with the Synergy modules. In 2023 James moved teams to begin his work as an Application Consultant.

His experience with the range of Synergy products allows him to offer multiple services, including:

Core Synergy Consultation.
Case Management Consultation.
Configuration advice and support for a range of modules.

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Training

To achieve optimal outcomes and reporting with Synergy and Core+, we offer a comprehensive digital training approach tailored to your workforce's needs.

Our training sessions are designed to help your team adapt to evolving services, ensuring they gain confidence, competence, and the ability to implement configurations and processes that enhance results for those you serve.

At The Access Group, we recognize the challenges you face, and we believe that maximizing the benefits of our solutions shouldn’t be one of them.

That’s why we’ve developed a range of professional training courses, grounded in best practices from other local authorities. Our goal is to support you in doing what you do best.

Get in touch

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Health checks

After implementing our systems, it’s advisable to periodically conduct a comprehensive review of your local configuration to ensure it remains well-maintained, documented, and effective. Various factors can impact your configuration, including the absence of a solid change request process, outdated workflows that don’t reflect changes in practice or legislation, and missed opportunities to leverage new functionalities in updated versions of the software.

Our team of consultants offers several options for health check reviews of Synergy and Core+. These reviews provide structured feedback and actionable recommendations to enhance your configuration, support best practices, improve outcomes for individuals, and meet statutory reporting requirements.

Get in touch

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Bespoke consultancy

There may be occasions where a full health check is not necessary, but a customer may benefit from bespoke consultancy to support specific requirements. Consultants can offer tailored support via various means e.g. configuration, focus groups and workshops.

Get in touch

Impacts of Core+ and Synergy Professional Services

We organised a 2 day workshop with Access who helped to organise and coordinate the required session for our end users. The workshop was led by the ever helpful (and super knowledgeable!) team at Access. The content delivered was really well received by the end users. The team has a wealth of knowledge, and the sessions were delivered at a perfect pace - allowing user to take notes, but still remain focused on the shared screen.

They even found time to help answer a service desk call query that we had open that was causing some consternation. Always pre-active - and suggested a further enhancement we may be able to make by talking to our Account Manager in the first instance. The team are super professional, and very engaging - following up each session with a brief summary of the subjects covered, and any points for further consideration.

Iain Maude Cheshire West and Chester

I would just like to thank Access for always going above and beyond, supporting me and the team to fully understand the Synergy FIS module. The team have provided numerous training sessions and are always on hand to support.

I struggled with the transition from our current EMS system to Synergy but with Access’s support I am now confident using the new system. Thank you so much, it really is appreciated!

Rebeka Monahan Hull City Council

Access organized a training session for us at very short notice. They covered all the topics we needed to go over and helped resolve all of our issues we were experiencing. We really valued the session, nothing was too much trouble. Really appreciated!

Kirsty Hudson Hull City Council

Having the ability to openly discuss, interrogate and understand how we are using Synergy with Access was a great experience. The team at Access is exceptionally knowledgeable and clearly explained functionality but also why some things are how they are.

They also provided a strong narrative as to the benefits of using some of the functionality in perhaps different ways to how we are now and also took ownership of finding out why some things were doing what perhaps she would not expect them to do. I, along with all my colleagues, found all interactions with Access to be really valuable and enjoyable!

Katy Halls Derbyshire

Extensive knowledge, excellent communication & interpersonal skills, the team at Access are amazing, and provide our support.

Access has an immense amount of knowledge not only about the product itself but also the day to day processes undertaken by LA's, which means they understand what its like on the ground for us, and doesn't just come at it from a system perspective. If they don’t know the answer they will go away and find out, and don't just pass us onto someone else.

Mel Foster Lancashire County Council

The Access Group has supported Lancashire County Council's Early Education Funding team for 5+ years. Access has been outstanding on every occasion, always willing to help, extremely knowledgeable about the software that we use and about the service area within which we work.

Any training/consultation delivered has been extremely professional and has always shown understanding and showed real patience even during times when we as customers may have needed some extra support. Over the years we have developed a real trust and affection for Access in Lancashire and consider them to be part of our extended funding family!

Warren Marchini Lancashire County Council

The training was delivered effectively, and the trainer was clear and articulate. she was attentive to the group's needs and willing to explain everything in detail, ensuring everyone understood the material.

Mehbooba Begum London Borough of Tower Hamlets

We have known the trainer for many years and know how knowledgeable she is in Synergy. She is amazing in explaining things and answering questions.

Rakesh Chauhan Brent

Want to learn more about our Core+ and Synergy products and how it can help your local authority?

Core+ is a fully web-based, single database solution for Integrated Youth Support. Each of our Core+ solutions is part of the single Core+ database; we don’t plug in, we don’t bolt-on; we simply switch on the module(s) that you need.

Synergy helps local authorities, schools, and other providers to support families more effectively by spanning the full education and child services spectrum. Integrating easily with social care systems, providing one single view of each child or young person.

Learn more about Core+ Learn more about Synergy