Uncovering barriers to information sharing
Progress so far 2014/15 1 Uncovering barriers to information sharing Progress so far 2014/15 2 Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing Introduction from the Chair There is no doubt that the transformation of public services is a fundamentally important factor for saving money and improving outcomes for people. Across the country we are seeing local places take a more innovative approach to service delivery, from the alignment of policing and mental health practitioners, to the integration of health and social care. Information sharing is at the heart of this transformation. The inception of the Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing in October 2014 was a step on the road to support service transformation, and an acknowledgement by its funding partners of their commitment to ensure better outcomes for service users through more integrated services. It is just six months since the Centre’s formation. Already barriers have been identified at both a national and local level, across our policy areas. Learning is now being shared through case studies, blogs, articles and tools. This will help to influence and shape information sharing approaches in local places and within national policy. This report has been designed to provide a flavour of that work, and an insight into some of the emerging themes. The value of information sharing at this point in time cannot be measured simply in terms of financial costs and savings. Recent reports, such as responding to child sexual exploitation,demonstrates the sad cost of not getting information sharing right. One of the greatest challenges is creating the time and space for staff to explore what impedes good information sharing and how to resolve this. The Centre’s work is highlighting the positive impact this has on the transformation of public services. This is why I hope that the Centre continues to develop and flourish. Its work – as a catalyst for cultural change around information sharing – will not be completed over night. The learning will enable policy makers and localities alike to take a more pragmatic and informed approach, realise rewards sooner, release pressure on budgets and improve outcomes for service users. I am also proud that the Centre is itself such a powerful, albeit relatively informal, collaboration between a number of Local Authorities and Government Departments. Long may that continue. Mark Fisher Director, Government Innovation Group and Office for Civil Society Chair, Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing Steering Group Progress so far 2014/15 3 Introduction Information sharing is changing across public service delivery. All too often, in the past, the response to a serious case review has been to implement a technological solution, with little attention paid to how organisations actually work together, what information they need to share, and how they change their approach to supporting the vulnerable. The wrong focus can create a barrier from the outset. The local places we support are focussing on the integration of services to ensure better outcomes for users. Although many are in the early stage of their information sharing journeys, those that began by looking at the relationship between the organisations involved in the service transformation from the outset, are moving towards solutions more quickly. Sitting alongside this approach, we find that strong leadership empowers staff to challenge the norm, while simultaneously removing the fear of taking more educated risks when tackling barriers. Our ethos is to work with local places that are ready to work with us – those who are willing to learn from across the range of policy areas. Feedback from these local places demonstrates that they value our approach and our ability to span the boundaries between local places and national policy makers – a viewpoint that we have also heard from the policy leads we work with. Our way of working is unique. We are a national organisation funded by multiple government departments. We work in local areas while retaining good lines of communication with our funding partners. We have a mixture of staff on fixed term contracts and secondments, and aim to be a good employer with a strong focus on staff development and a culture of collaborative working – both internally and with our partners. We are hosted by Leicestershire County Council, to whom I would like to extend my gratitude for their continued support of this innovative model. We are in a privileged position and recognise that it is this which enables us to provide an impartial point of view, affecting change at all levels and bringing about sustainable transformation. But, we need this role to continue so information sharing becomes more than a shift in language – rather, a total shift in the working practices of public service providers. Stephen Curtis Director, Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing “It is vital the Centre’s work continues.” 4 Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing Geographical focus The Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing is funded by the Home Office (HO), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Department of Health (DoH). Our work focusses on overcoming information sharing barriers in the transformation of services covering: Ending Gang and Youth Violence Domestic abuse Mental health and policing Up & coming The role of Multi Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH) in information sharing Health and social care integration Welfare reform Working with This map details the local places where our skilled team of Engagement Managers are currently working to uncover and challenge information sharing barriers. It also displays the local areas where we are exploring or have recently secured opportunities to work. Up & coming Blackpool Up & coming Troubled families Lincolnshire Staffordshire Working with South Devon & Torbay Up & coming London Boroughs Central London Forward Up & coming Surrey Working with Up & coming Up & coming Bath & North East Somerset Dorset Cornwall Leicestershire Up & coming Working with Working with Working with Sandwell Nottingham City North Margate Progress so far 2014/15 5 Uncovering information sharing barriers in local places Our approach We co-locate our team of Engagement Managers in local places so that they can work intensively with them to uncover and challenge the barriers that are preventing effective information sharing in service transformation. Through conversations and working groups, each Engagement Manager seeks to understand what the local place is trying to achieve, then reflects the learning back to partners. This approach supports key players to identify what is limiting their approach and to develop solutions that will unblock the flow of information. Learning is then shared through our website in the form of case studies, blog posts and tools. It is also promoted through a wide range of channels – from media and newsletters to speaking opportunities at national events and facilitation of local workshops. Our current focus Nottingham City North Rebalancing the Outer Estates programme is seeking to improve prospects for people living in the North of the City of Nottingham. The programme aims to tackle multiple social and economic issues by bringing together voluntary, public and private sector partners to develop a more integrated approach, and to establish a culture that focusses on local people being in work. Our role: Information sharing is seen as the key to supporting multiple agencies in working together and is being built into the fabric of the programme from its inception. Early interactions with partners have highlighted the following focus for our work: • Support conversations between the programme and the Department for Work and Pensions to enable the development of economic and skills schemes; • Develop good information sharing practice between education, health and other local partners to increase attendance and support safeguarding in schools; • Support the delivery of a project for young people that empowers its participants to take charge of their information and its transfer between agencies; • Capture and share learning from a project that will bring together multiple agencies to tackle domestic violence in the Aspley area – supporting agencies involved to identify and tackle the information sharing challenges that arise. “We value being supported and challenged, rather than being audited and inspected.” Feedback from local place evaluation undertaken in 2015. 6 Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing Surrey Responding to the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, Surrey is working to ensure people get the help they need when they are in mental health crisis. They are doing this through the implementation of a Single Point of Access – where users can access support through a central place or telephone number – and Safe Havens for people to access when feeling vulnerable. Working in Surrey The challenge: Surrey identified that variation of awareness and understanding among partners of the information sharing challenges could be an issue in developing the programme and establishing robust information sharing approaches. Through conversations, the Centre identified there was a strong commitment to the project, but the understanding around the barriers and enablers for information sharing were less well developed. Our role: The programme will be supported by a single spine of information – bringing together knowledge and data from partners, including the police and mental health workers. Surrey recognises that the implementation of this is far greater than putting in place a database and has been working with the Centre to explore the type of culture needed to make this work. The approach: An initial workshop was organised by the Centre for key partners to develop a shared understanding of the information sharing issues that needed considering when scoping a design for an element of the new service. The workshop focussed thinking on what a new service might look like; understanding what service users would expect from it; and what needed to be put in place to support information sharing to deliver the service. Working with the Centre, Surrey has identified the need to engage with a wider range of partners to ensure the service’s successful implementation and has developed a six month plan for how the Centre can support them in facilitating these conversations. A four-month pilot, which includes the co-location of a mental health worker in the police contact centre, will provide learning to inform the wider programme’s roll out. The outcome: This meeting opened up conversations between partners and Surrey which has continued through their regular programme meetings and has contributed to strengthening the positive working relationship. Surrey is now looking at how information sharing is working in their pilot work, including the co-location of mental health and police staff and the development of a community based place of safety for those in mental health crisis. Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) B&NES is taking a holistic approach to transformation and service delivery through early intervention in support of better safeguarding, outcomes for troubled families, employment and community health services. The aim is to support local people before crisis point and reduce the cost of services in the long term. The transformation programme focusses on three key areas: developing a Multi-Agency Intelligence Sharing Hub which will enable partners to share information about low-level risk situations more effectively; developing Your Care Your Way which is a patient-centred, integrated care approach, designed by residents and community services that will go live from 2017; and a joint project between the Connecting Families and customer service teams to provide a more joined-up approach to supporting individuals and families claiming welfare support, through multi-agency working. Our role: With information sharing playing an integral role, B&NES has recognised the need to adopt a new culture across its workforce in order to share effectively and appropriately. The Centre is supporting B&NES to create the skills and capacity to bring this to fruition, providing guidance and evidence, facilitating conversations between partners, including GPs and health professionals, and bridging conversations with national organisations, such as DWP, to enable potential blockages to be addressed early into the programme’s development. Progress so far 2014/15 7 Dorset Dorset is developing an integrated approach to health and social care through its programme, Better Together. The programme focusses on delivering improved health and social care services through implementing a person-centred, outcome-focussed, preventative, co-ordinated care model. Our role: The programme involves a complex group of partners that are committed to its success. Each partner has different systems in place for collecting and storing information so an information sharing charter is being developed by them. However, a critical barrier to its implementation is partner engagement and communication. Dorset is currently working with the Centre to develop a more inclusive approach to internal engagement and communication to ensure a balance across the partnership, with each practitioner taking ownership and responsibility for the programme’s success. Working in Dorset The challenge: Dorset is developing a new information sharing charter that outlines how partners will share information to support the delivery of the Better Together programme. The charter is being developed with the support of the information governance teams from eight of the partner organisations, but it was recognised that the charter alone will not solve the information sharing challenges for the programme. The approach: The design of the charter provided an excellent reflection point in the programme and the Centre used this opportunity to bring together the programme board to discuss what successful information sharing looks like, internally and externally, through an intensive workshop. The outcome: The workshop gave programme board members the chance to assess who within their organisations needed to be involved in the roll out of the charter. They recognised that principles needed to be reflected equally across internal communications, skills development and recruitment to ensure a sufficient culture of sharing is adopted. They also identified the role they play in ensuring this within their own organisations and that learning is to be shared with project leads across the programme South Devon and Torbay South Devon and Torbay is a Health and Social Care Pioneer area. Their programme – Joined Up – focusses on integrating health and social care to create lasting changes to the health and wellbeing of residents. Our role: Bringing together partners from different services to provide a more person-centred approach to care requires consistent and appropriate sharing of information. In South Devon and Torbay partners are keen to make this happen, but a fear of getting it wrong is limiting progress. The Centre is helping to develop a strong and supportive culture of sharing, to complement their robust information sharing agreements. A trial ran in January to test information sharing documentation and outcomes are now feeding into the wider programme. “We welcome the personal approach and a focus on relationships, rather than lots of reports and documentation.” Feedback from local place evaluation undertaken in 2015. 8 Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing Local places have reported that they find it beneficial to receive key messages, via the Centre’s engagement, that it is important to resolve cultural barriers to information sharing. Cornwall As a Health and Social Care Pioneer area, Cornwall is developing a new approach to the way people and services think about health and social care. The programme includes the integration of Age UK volunteers into the hospital discharge process to support patients’ successful return back into the community, reducing the number of patients who need to be readmitted back to hospital. So far, Cornwall has successfully engaged with partners and residents to inform the development and delivery of this new approach. Driving this forward is strong leadership, governance and influence, and the Centre is working on case studies to capture the approach to share widely across its networks. The Centre is also working with Cornwall to develop capacity to support the next phase of its programme, which looks at linking IT across the partnership. Partnership working to break down barriers The Centre is working in partnership with a wide range of organisations, from the Public Service Transformation Network through to the Information Governance Alliance, to provide a seamless approach to supporting local places transform their public services through integration and information sharing. The challenge: A local place is developing a collaborative approach to reduce the number of callers to blue light services. By identifying high-volume callers and using a robust process of monitoring, assessment, information sharing and relevant service referrals, it aims to provide users with the support they needed without burdening an already overstretched service. The project aimed to include the sharing of frequent caller’s telephone numbers between emergency services, enabling better signposting. However, as more details of the process were planned one of the partners called a halt to further development as a Caldicott Guardian raised concerns that telephone numbers were personally identifiable and the project’s approach potentially breached the Data Protection Act. The solution: The Centre contacted the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) on behalf of the local place which wished to remain anonymous. The ICO clarified the law and provided clear guidance, which included the development of a Privacy Impact Assessment, which would enable partners to have critical conversations to collectively identify, understand and manage the privacy risks of the project appropriately. The result: Partners found the guidance and tool invaluable and it meant that, despite concerns over capacity, the issue was overcome. The project is now back on track. Progress so far 2014/15 9 Emerging locations We are developing relationships with a number of new locations to support them with their information sharing journeys. Location Transformation focus Centre of Excellence involvement Margate Ending Gang and Youth Violence Looking at challenges around risk in information sharing. Welfare Reform – Nottingham City North and London Boroughs As recipients of Transformation Challenge Award funding, these areas are developing their approach for supporting people back to work and improve the life and health chances of young people. The Centre will be providing opportunities to share knowledge and create an information sharing peer network. Central London Forward Welfare reform – the ESF funded Working Capital programme seeks to support 4,000 central London residents that claim Employment Support Allowance to find long-term employment after leaving the National Work Programme. The Centre hosted a workshop in March 2015 to identify the information sharing issues. Further workshops are planned for 2015. MASH – B&NES, Birmingham, Camden, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Sandwell and London Councils These areas have developed and are developing Multi Agency Sharing Hubs. Based on findings from the Home Office’s Multi Agency Working and Information Sharing Project report, the Centre is running a workshop for these areas to learn from one another, develop a peer-to-peer support network and investigate the role of information sharing in MASH. Blackpool Through its Transience Programme, Blackpool is supporting vulnerable people into healthy, sustainable lifestyles; its Domestic Abuse Pathway is looking to re-model Blackpool’s domestic abuse services to focus on prevention; and its Positive Transitions Pathway is developing new pathways to reduce youth homelessness. The Centre hosted a workshop in March 2015 to identify information sharing issues within the Transience Programme. Together with the Public Service Transformation Network and New Economy, further workshops around this programme and also Positive Transitions are being held in April 2015. Local places have reported that they feel valued and supported when the Centre deploys a team member to work with them. 10 Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing Policy focus: Ending Gang and Youth Violence Our approach In February 2015, the Centre brought a number of local places together, including Waltham Forest, Nottinghamshire and Margate, to discuss the challenges they faced and explore some of the information sharing issues affecting them in tackling gang and youth violence. The one-day workshop, which was run in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation and the cross-government Ending Gang and Youth Violence Programme, was attended by 30 professionals from a range of agencies, including the police, Jobcentre Plus, local councils and youth service providers. Key findings Participants at the event highlighted that, although many of the issues that cause young people to become involved in gang and youth violence can be specific to the locality, many of the information sharing barriers they face when joining up services to resolve them, are similar. These include: The management and mitigation of risk by developing as full and clear a picture as possible of a situation; The overreliance on police data, with more work needed to record information from more diverse sources; A disparity between organisations in taking responsibility to share information about situations; The role of education and childrens’ services in sharing information; A desire for health to share information about vulnerable people, particularly when placing them in a childrens’ home or bringing an ex-offender back into the community. Next steps Findings from the event are now being shared through the Centre’s channels and the Centre is exploring how it will work with Margate more intensively. Communication teams of funders, partners and stakeholders have told us they find great value in the information sharing stories and evidence we are collecting of real life experiences. Progress so far 2014/15 11 National conversations Behind the scenes, the Centre’s work is providing insight from local places and team knowledge to inform national conversations around information sharing in public service transformation. November 2014 The independent Service Transformation Challenge Panel launch – Bolder, Braver, Better: why we need local deals to save public services. »Provided case study from Melton and general evidence of overcoming cultural barriers to information sharing. Centre highlighted as a key player in the Government response to recommendations. December 2014 Cabinet Office data sharing proposal for legislation »Supported development of proposal, recommending giving broader power rather than specific legal gateways to information sharing. January 2015 Better Business Compliance Information Sharing event »Provided guidance on information sharing and led a presentation on findings from local places. January 2015 Information Sharing: HMG advice for professionals providing safeguarding services to vulnerable children, young people, parents and carers. »Provided comments on guidance. January 2015 DCLG Data Sharing Discovery Day »Led workshops for participants to understand own barriers to information sharing and participated in panel. January 2015 Ending Gangs and Youth Violence workshop »Ran workshop to bring local places together to discuss challenges. 12 Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing February 2015 Public Service Transformation Summit »Supported conference and raised profile of Centre with participants. March 2015 Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation – Government response to Rotherham and information sharing letter to local places »Provided supportive communications to reinforce messages to local places »Advised on content of letter to local places »Centre mentioned positively in the response. March 2015 Information Governance Oversight Group Information Sharing Summit »Supported the development of the event, facilitated workshops and helped disseminate learning. March 2015 Better Care Fund »Supporting the trial of the Better Care Exchange and ‘how to’ guidance. March 2015 Ending Gangs and Youth Violence annual report »Findings from January workshop featured in report. Local places find it helpful to have messages from Government through the Centre. Progress so far 2014/15 13 Informing the theory Leading academics from the Universities of East Anglia, Newcastle, Bradford, Leeds Metropolitan, Manchester Metropolitan and Loughborough have come together to form an Academic Advisory Panel. The Panel sits alongside the Centre and provides academic perspective to our work in local places. Our learning can help shape theory on information sharing and academic theory informs our day-to-day approaches. Learning from our academic and operational journey is being shared through a seminar series funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The three year programme brings together academics, policy-makers and practitioners to explore the changing landscape of information sharing to contribute to a shared understanding, and help to inform capacity building academically and operationally. Two seminars have run to date covering information sharing in health and social care and families. “The event confirmed the vital role of information sharing within a complex multi-agency regime of welfare provision in the UK and also drew attention to vital issues about consent, ownership of information, the purpose of information and the differences in approaches to information sharing between agencies.” “Listening to the academic arguments presented has given me a new impetus and focus on the work I am undertaking.” “The event validated what I am experiencing as a practitioner – I know our culture has to shift and hopefully I can make a difference.” “I am now going to work with partners to ensure information sharing takes place where needed, regardless of the barriers that need to be overcome.” 14 Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing Sharing the learning Uncovering the barriers to information sharing is just one aspect of the Centre’s work. Sharing that learning widely to help other local places develop their information sharing approach is the other. We are finding that barriers which limit effective information sharing are rarely specific to the policy area. Many are generic to most places – such as a lack of trust between partners, or fear of repercussions reinforced by a misunderstanding of local or national policy. We are continually developing our dissemination channels to help local places access and learn from across our focus area as easily as possible. Learning is published regularly on our website, promoted through our social media channels and monthly newsletter and used to support our attendance at events nationally. Our work and commentary also regularly features in trade publications and in partner newsletters and the growth of our networks of interest show that local places are starting to access our information. To support the development of our network of interest, the Centre ran the “What’s Your Information Story” campaign. The campaign focussed on capturing and sharing personal stories of failed and successful information sharing to focus local places and policy makers on the value of information sharing. twitter 495 Followers 23% London 6,700 monthly visitors website Channel growth 3% Leicester 2% Bristol newsletter 42% increase since launch New visitors 2% Amsterdam 73,531 Average reach 921 sign ups 27.3% Return visitors 2% Nottingham 72.7% 1 London 2 Leicester 3 Sheffield 4 Birmingham Top 5 visitor locations 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tools: information sharing agreements Tools: data controller and data processor Case studies Meet the team Events Blog Most visited pages 51% increase 5 Leeds Progress so far 2014/15 15 Focus for new financial year After a positive start, we have big aspirations for 2015/16. Our aim is to enable sustainable public service transformation through improved information sharing. Through this we will ensure: That information sharing plays a coordinated role in local and national public service transformation There is local and national recognition that cultural and organisational factors are key influencers on effective information sharing We have developed evidence that drives local and national change to service delivery Our work influences an increase in local capacity and capability to share information Things to watch out for… In the coming months the Centre will be: – Holding a workshop to look at different approaches to Multi Agency Sharing Hubs and the models that support this – Sharing learning from across its key areas through a range of publications, made available on the website – Launching tools to support local places in challenging information sharing barriers – Attending the Local Government Association annual conference and the Public Sector Show, to share learning. Partner organisations are keen to deepen and strengthen links with the Centre and establish systematic ways of working closely together to support local places. 16 Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing We have a range of tools and case studies that we update regularly on our website. Sign up for updates on the site or connect with us to keep updated. Follow us @InfoShareCoE Join the conversation #InformationSharing Connect with us N0978 informationsharing.org.uk
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