Skills for the Job: Sharing data for safeguarding

Why is it important to collect data on the welfare of children and young people?

While it would be possible to create a checklist of the key data about children, their families and service engagement over time, the welfare process is about human development and journeys. It requires key skills in learning about people, generating insight, observation and information management. This involves both qualitative and quantitative data and crucially professional reflection to make sense of a human situation and respond appropriately. This may be best achieved in a shared recording system, by rich categorization and the capacity to aggregate case data, which can be communicated and shared.

Why is it important to share welfare information with all children's services?

It is important for professionals to record and pass on observations or incidents which can clarify circumstances - such as a missed hospital appointment - but then include a record of the context; for example, police officers being unable to follow up an unsatisfactory explanation of bruising. At this point it would also be important to know about contradictions, such as whether the family has kept to the agreed contract, the children are receiving breakfast and are getting to school on time. If other professionals are able to feed information - such as observed behaviours or changes in the household - into this then it helps to build a more complete picture of the household and enables all agencies to make more informed decisions.

The multi-agency safeguarding hub has become a popular form of information sharing across agencies. One of the key benefits could be the opportunity to build dialogue across the leadership, and a multi-professional culture about helping at an earlier point.

How do you best share information?

In order to generate and share high-quality information you need to have a rich source of well-managed data. This is best achieved by bringing together as many systems that gather information as possible and placing them into a single database. Having a single data source provides the best environment for managing data quality and security effectively and therefore a sound basis for making this information available to the right people at the right time.

What should practitioners avoid doing when sharing information?

It is vital that practitioners don't make judgments about the information they have before sharing it. It is also critical that all information is shared even if it appears to be contradictory or disconfirming.

This is equally true of more subjective information. Not being able to evidence something does not mean that it shouldn't or can't be shared, such as uncomfortable feelings from home visits.

To support practitioners, managers need to ensure that a proper framework for data security and management is established and widely understood, so that information can be shared appropriately among professionals without concerns over data protection hindering the process.

What factors will support effective information sharing?

It is important that an information system does not hinder data gathering by, for example, making the process too complex or too rigid. The system should be designed and implemented with the professional in mind; and it should be intuitive and consistent in how it records information.

It is advisable to avoid a wide variety of different data capture forms and processes. These variations can lead to confusion and problems affecting data quality.

For professionals it is crucial that there is a clear understanding of data standards, security and how to record information properly. The better the quality of recorded information the more effective the system and the greater the benefits realised from sharing and acting on knowledge.

TOP TIPS

• Establish and build the best quality data source you can
• Share as much information as possible without prejudgment
• Share thoughts and feelings as well as factual information
• Be open to change your thinking and challenge the thinking of others
• Learn from what works and stop doing what doesn't and share that knowledge
  
  

By Paul Richards, director of children and young people's services, CACI