Community Health Partnerships (CHP) has increased its investment in Parallel Data Intelligence Limited, the company behind data mapping and insight tool SHAPE. The 51% shareholding strengthens its joint venture with private sector partner Shared Agenda Solutions.
Parallel is a software development consultancy that specialises in interactive mapping, data visualisation and insight.
Well known for being the developers of the Department of Health and Social Care tool SHAPE, Parallel has helped unlock some of the biggest service planning and estates challenges facing primary, acute and community care. CHP’s investment will safeguard SHAPE as a strategic tool for the NHS and the wider public sector, assuring its ongoing development to meet future place based care planning needs.
CHP is wholly owned by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and specialises in partnerships and joint ventures with the private sector and other public sector bodies, to provide innovative and sustainable spaces for patient care.
Wendy Farrington-Chadd, Chief Executive Officer of CHP said:
“CHP’s investment in Parallel underpins the strategic importance of using data to make informed decisions, and CHP’s commitment to working with the private sector to enhance outcomes for healthcare professionals and patients.
“We are delighted to strengthen our existing relationship with Parallel’s other main shareholder, Shared Agenda, to develop the business through its service offering.”
As well as SHAPE, which is used by over 20,000 public sector professionals across England to help support service and estates planning, Parallel also develops bespoke data driven software for the public and private sector, including catchment checking tools for GP practices, service planning digital toolkits, procurement framework websites and community mapping applications to support place-based decision making.
Shared Agenda, the other investor in Parallel, is part of the wider Sewell Group, a co-owned business that spans consultancy, construction and facilities management, working with the public sector across the country.
Tim Wigglesworth, CEO of Shared Agenda, said:
“We’ve always recognised and believed in the strength of successful partnerships and the benefits they can bring and I’m delighted that we’re now reinforcing our long standing relationship with CHP through their interest in Parallel.
“There is a widely held acknowledgement of the importance that clear and accurate data brings to the effective and efficient use of resources and Parallel, through the application of its various products, is well placed to drive this.“
