Memorandum submitted by Professor Hedy
Cleaver
DEVELOPING INFORMATION SHARING AND ASSESSMENT
SYSTEMS
Professor Hedy Cleaver, Julie Barnes, David
Bliss and Deborah Cleaver
THE DEVELOPMENT
OF A
DATABASE: FINDINGS
FROM THE
TRAILBLAZERS AT
FEBRUARY 2005
Methods
Information was gathered through a brief telephone
interview with either the Trailblazer lead or a member of the
ISA team in every Trailblazer.
The findings from these brief interviews suggest
there is considerable variation amongst the Trailblazers in the
piloting and rolling out of a database. The Trailblazers fall
into four categories in relation to implementing their database:
(a) those where the database has been piloted
and rolled out;
(b) those piloting their database and at
an early stage of rolling it out further;
(c) those piloting their database; and
(d) those where the pilot is not yet running.
(a) database piloted and rolled out
East Sussex—Piloted a database and have
rolled it out across the whole county.
Nearly all children in the county on the database—one
health feed not yet part of system but will be soon. Trained over
1,000 staff (out of an estimated 3,000 who the index is aimed
at). Database not being used as often as they would like by practitioners
(part of this is due to individual agencies having to sort out
their consent/information sharing policies before they start adding
their involvements on the database) but they are working on this.
(b) database pilot running and at early stage
of rolling it out
Lewisham—Have piloted their database and
then updated their pilot system. Received the updated system at
the end of November. They are now populating it (from existing
databases—education, social services etc), training practitioners
and rolling it out across the whole borough (70+ trained so far,
have passwords and can now use the updated system).
Telford—Have used their database in a
pilot area. 250 Practitioners registered to use it. Have updated
the system and are rolling it out over the next few months.
Sheffield—Have used their database in
a pilot area. Now starting to plan the wider role out.
West Sussex—Pilot has been running and
it is now being wrapped up. Will be rolled out at a later date.
(Have started planning the role out)
East Sussex—Contact with the lead has
not been possible. By October 2004 they had piloted a database
and it is likely that they have now trained staff and rolled it
out beyond their pilot area.
(c) database pilot running
Knowsley—piloted a database in 3 schools.
Just children in these schools on the database. Trained about
100 practitioners.
Leicester—piloting in Rutland. 90 people
can use Bridges but not doing so in practice. The lead suggested
two reasons why practitioners are not using it:
(a) no information on index from health;
(b) the consent rules mean practitioners
must get written consent therefore it is more work for practitioners.
They are reviewing their consent rules.
Bolton—At present are piloting a database
with only 100 children on it. Plan to expand to a single geographical
location within the borough in April 2005.
(d) database pilot not yet running
Camden—database works but no one using
it. Delayed due to having to separate out the CAF from the database.
Populating database now from schools, social services and YOT.
Have trained practitioners and anticipate end of April 2005 start.
K&C—database on hold at the moment
(not going to invest when so much uncertainty)
Gateshead and Newcastle—database due to
go live in February 2005 with about 200 practitioners.
| 
