St. Helens Council selects PGP Universal Gateway Email to safeguard sensitive electronic information
(08/02/2008)

St. Helens Council is the government services provider for one of the largest towns in the northwest of England, supplying a broad range of social care and health services to about 179,000 residents. It consists of the Adult Social Care & Health, People Services, Urban Regeneration, Environmental Protection, and the Chief Executive Departments.

The Council was concerned about the internal management of sensitive client data and the safety of personal and social data being sent electronically to external health organisations and service providers. It required a solution that would fit into its existing network infrastructure, require minimal IT training and support, and ensure compliance with the Government Connect programme, a new security initiative designed to create a common infrastructure for local authorities to share electronic client information across government departments and with each other.

PGP Corporation has announced that St. Helens Council has selected PGP Universal Gateway Email to safeguard sensitive information in electronic communications and protect the privacy of social care clients.

The PGP solution allows the Council’s Adult Social Care and Health department staff to automatically encrypt all emails carrying confidential information on client social care to external organisations and providers, reducing the risk of data leaks and complying with new UK standards regarding the transfer of electronic social care records. The ability to securely send referrals and care plans via email rather than fax or letter also means that arrangements for care can begin as quickly as possible, thus increasing the effectiveness of the service provided to clients.

“We’ve always taken the responsibility to protect client information very seriously, and the introduction of government data sharing regulations was a catalyst to further improve the way electronic data was transmitted,” said Ste Sharples, information communications technology business manager for St. Helens Council. “It was also important that the new solution be deployed with minimal disruption and without requiring email recipients to install any additional software or change their computing environment.”

St. Helens Council worked with Intellect Security, a PGP Gold Partner, to set up a low-risk proof of concept with a limited number of users. After Intellect demonstrated interoperability with the Council’s existing Lotus Notes Domino infrastructure, it rolled out PGP Universal Gateway Email to the entire Adult Social Care and Health department.

“Intellect Security took only a few days to deploy the full solution, and demonstrated a great deal of expertise in PGP solutions plus a very responsive attitude,” adds Sharples. “We are particularly pleased that the technology is easy to use and virtually transparent to those involved. With the PGP solution deployed, we can now offer clients continually protected, fully secure communications, no matter where the data goes. In this way, we see this new capability as complementing the government’s electronic agenda.”

St. Helens Council anticipates that the use of secure email will grow and is now considering providing secure delivery of billing information using PGP NetShare and extending email encryption to its Children and Young People’s Services department. Because the Council has already invested in the PGP Encryption Platform, the architecture automatically deployed with PGP Universal Gateway Email, the Council can easily add other PGP encryption applications as new needs arise.