Winning Scottish EDGE represents a significant milestone in the journey of Geco Connect.
From an initial pool of 383 applications, Geco Connect progressed through the assessment stages, reached the final 24 businesses and ultimately secured £90,000 of investment to support the next phase of growth.
For any business, receiving recognition from one of Scotland’s most respected entrepreneurial support programmes is an achievement. For Geco Connect, however, the award represents something much bigger than funding.
It is recognition of a challenge facing organisations across the care and education sector.
Every day, professionals spend valuable time completing reports, updating multiple systems and searching for information that already exists elsewhere. While reporting and accountability are essential, the administrative burden placed on teams can reduce the time available to support children and young people directly.
Geco Connect was developed to address this challenge.
Built around Scotland’s GIRFEC framework and SHANARRI wellbeing indicators, the platform helps organisations bring care, education and wellbeing reporting together in one place. By reducing duplication, strengthening local authority reporting and improving visibility of outcomes, Geco Connect enables organisations to focus more of their time and energy where it matters most.
The Scottish EDGE investment will support continued platform development and growth, helping more organisations benefit from a modern approach to wellbeing reporting and outcome tracking.
Importantly, this recognition validates a belief shared by the Geco Connect team, sector partners and early adopters.
Technology should not replace professional judgement or human relationships.
Instead, it should remove barriers, reduce administrative burden and give professionals more time to do the work they came into the sector to do.
As adoption of Geco Connect continues to grow, the focus remains unchanged: helping organisations deliver better visibility of outcomes, stronger collaboration and ultimately better experiences for children and young people.
The journey so far has been incredibly encouraging. The opportunity ahead is even bigger.