March 2004 Minimum Requirements

This project is primarily about cultural change and professional practice. IRT is a process and will not in itself change service delivery. It is about promoting new ways of working across agencies, and facilitating communications and in particular information sharing between practitioners.

Requirement 1: Have evidence of improved information-sharing between health, education and social care leading to better services for children who display one or more risk factors.

The overall aim of the IRT project is to improve communication and information sharing between health, education and social care (IRT Guidance 2.2). We are clear that this is a long-term, ongoing process.

This deliverable should be seen as an umbrella under which other deliverables fall. 'Improvement' will be measured by evidence provided for the other requirements.

Requirement 2: Have developed a common understanding of assessment, risk factors, service thresholds that trigger action and service eligibility criteria.

As outlined in the Green Paper, national work on a common assessment framework is underway and will include some work on common definitions and links to more specialist assessments. The aim is for the new framework to be introduced in Autumn 2004. Discussions with Ministers are underway to agree the basis of the common assessment framework, and we will let you know as soon as definite decisions are taken. In the meantime, we would encourage you to focus primarily on establishing a common understanding across agencies, rather than tackling the more difficult issues of common language and assessment.

There is not an expectation that LAs will tackle common assessment in the short term project. This deliverable is about building on the audit of assessment completed before September to identify both gaps and examples of best practice, tackling the cultural barriers between agencies to prepare for the new framework. Project managers should facilitate multi agency discussions and establish better mutual understanding across agencies of how children are currently assessed and what thresholds and eligibility criteria are used.

Minimum required  

Evidence of multi-agency discussions about current practice in relation to assessment, risk factors, thresholds and eligibility criteria. This is about establishing a shared understanding. At a minimum, these discussions should include representatives from health, education and social care (IRT Guidance 3.3). There should be evidence that these discussions are owned at a senior level.

 

 Have you had multi agency discussions? How often? Who has been involved? How have you tried to promote a shared understanding of current practice? Is there documentary evidence? Is your CYPSP signed up to this process?
Further improvement  
A glossary of terms used in different services across agencies, e.g. BEST, LAC etc. This should include information about health, education and social care. This would be very helpful in supporting this deliverable, but while we would see this as best practice, we are not stipulating this as a minimum requirement. Who was involved in producing it? How has it been disseminated
Anything else which supports the development of a mutual understanding between agencies For example: leaflets 'what does a social worker / health visitor / SENCO do?'; further multi-agency meetings, training events etc.

Requirement 3: Have a service directory providing comprehensive information on local providers, eligibility criteria, geographical location and referral procedures.

The introduction of an online service directory should provide a list of services in the authority area and should initially be accessible to practitioners from statutory and voluntary sectors. The service directory should include a broad range of preventative services and aim to reduce the number of inappropriate and misdirected referrals. Local authorities need to be clear that what they are developing takes into account the development of other national service directories e.g. ChildrenŐs Information Service, Connexions etc.

Every LA needs to provide their IRT service directory web link by March 2004 so the DfES can assess progress. It is recognised that in some authorities, directories will not be fully populated until September, and as such, decisions about dissemination should be based on the completeness of the directory.

Minimum required
LAs need to show evidence that an online service directory (IRT Guidance 3.3) is up and running including information on local providers, eligibility criteria, geographical location and referral procedures. Is the service directory available online? Does the service directory include a search engine to filter for results? Is comprehensive information about each service included? What consideration has been given to the quality of the information provided?
The online list of services should include all statutory and some voluntary organisations. This could just be links to existing directories. The project at all stages should aim to build on existing best practice and not create more duplication / unnecessary bureaucracy. It is fine for the IRT service directory to just signpost other directories from a new front page. The important thing is that there is one point of entry for accessing all of the information.

Evidence of some dissemination amongst health, education and social care practitioners and managers although this could happen after March if more appropriate.

 

 Do practitioners know about the service directory? How have you disseminated the information (e.g. newsletters, direct mailings)? Have senior staff cascaded the information?
Further improvement
Evidence of wider dissemination to practitioners from a range of agencies, including the voluntary sector
Directory available in other formats/ languages.
Evidence that children, young people and families have access to the directory, in a child friendly format. Evidence that the directory has been publicised to children and families. Is there information about it in public places (e.g. GP surgeries, libraries, youth clubs, Citizens Advice Bureaux, schools etc.)?
Ability to search the directory in a variety of ways including by the needs of the child.

Requirement 4: Have procedures for keeping this service directory up to date and for ensuring professionals working with children and young people have access - allowing public access where possible.

A web based service directory will provide information to practitioners and families about thresholds and access to services. The individual or team responsible for the upkeep of the directory will play an important role in providing relevant up to date information to those who require it.

Minimum required  
There should be clear responsibility for the upkeep of the service directory (IRT Guidance 3.4). Has a person/section with responsibility for keeping the directory up to date been identified? What procedures are in place to ensure that the directory is kept up to date?
Some consideration given to the quality of information provided about the services Is the service directory written in plain, understandable English? Have acronyms been spelled out?
Further improvement  
Further consideration given to quality of information about services. What steps have you taken to ensure that the information about services is accurate and complete?

 

Requirement 5: Publish a short privacy statement to inform children, young people and their families about confidentiality and access to records.

This should build on current best practice in relation to the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts and arrangements LAs have in place to ensure compliance with the legal framework. It is critical that children and families are aware of how their information is currently used; what is collected; by whom; and for what purpose.

Minimum required
Procedures and statements on privacy, confidentiality and access produced by colleagues in health, education and social care. Who has been involved in producing the statements? Have they been agreed at a senior level?
Evidence that child friendly statements have been published to children and families e.g. through schools, GP surgeries etc
Further improvement
Establish common ground on privacy, confidentiality and access across health, education and social care and issue one agreed privacy statement.
Evidence of effective consultation with children and families in preparing the statement.
Evidence of wide dissemination to children and families through direct mailing.

Requirement 6: Have protocols for information sharing in place, covering health, education and social care; and in development for other agencies providing services to children and young people.

The existing legal framework is enabling and allows a good deal of information to be shared, but information sharing must be supported by robust protocols. Where possible, work in this area should build on existing best practice (identified in the information sharing audit completed before September), but the agreed protocol must facilitate multi-agency working. Trailblazers have approached this by developing overarching framework agreements, supported by more detailed service level protocols.

Minimum required
Review existing protocols to identify best practice and where there are gaps in coverage.
Protocol signed by senior staff in health, education and social care. Who was involved in drafting the protocol? How has information about the protocol been disseminated to others?
OR
Where it is clear that existing protocols are comprehensive and support multi-agency information sharing, it is appropriate for a broad statement to be agreed that highlight the links between protocols.
Simple guidance produced for practitioners at the front line. Have clear guidelines on sharing been written and effectively disseminated to practitioners?
Further improvement
Protocols developed for sharing beyond health, education and social care (e.g. with police, voluntary sector, Connexions etc).,
Training for front line staff. How can you build data protection into existing training for front-line staff? What possibilities exist for joint training across agencies?
Monitoring the use of the protocol. What procedures are in place to monitor and evaluate the use of the protocol?

Requirement 7: Publish guidance on obtaining and documenting consent (including information leaflets for children, young people and their families and consent forms).

Where possible, information sharing should be based on consent. Seeking consent to share information should be considered best practice by practitioners but it is important that practitioners feel confident about how to get consent, how to document it and when they can share information without consent.

Minimum required  
Ensure guidance complies with existing legislation.  
Accessible guidance produced and disseminated to practitioners. At a minimum this should include colleagues in health, education, social care. Who was involved in producing the guidance? Has it been agreed at a senior level? Has it been disseminated to front-line staff? How? To whom?
Information leaflets for children. Were children and families consulted about the production of the leaflet? Who produced it? Has it been agreed at a senior level? How have the leaflets been disseminated (schools, GP surgeries?)?
Consent forms produced and disseminated to front-line staff in health, education and social care for use in working with children and families. Who produced the forms? How have the forms been disseminated?
Further improvement  
Establish common ground on consent across health, education and social care. Has one consent form been produced for use across health, education and social care?
Evidence of consultation with practitioners, and children and families.  
Training to improve understanding of front line staff about how to tackle consent issues. How can you build this into existing training for front-line staff? What possibilities exist for joint training across agencies within your current training framework?

Requirement 8: Understanding of the authority's specific business needs in relation to information sharing.

This deliverable is about assessing the challenges the authority will face in the future in further developing information sharing and implementing the proposals outlined in the Green Paper. It is important that authorities consider the collection, storage and sharing of information in the longer-term. This is what makes up the business needs i.e. what needs to be obtained, how, why, for how long, with whom will this be shared/passed, responsibility, ownership and liability.

Minimum required  
Evidence of a shared understanding of business needs of each service through discussions with relevant people. At a minimum these discussions should include representatives from health, education and social care. Have you had multi agency discussions? How often? Who has been involved? How have you tried to promote a shared understanding? Is there documentary evidence? Are you in a position to tell the DfES what challenges you will face in implementing the Green Paper, both in terms of professional practice, and also technical developments?
Further improvement  
Process maps produced.  
Shared understanding of business needs agreed across agencies. Some documentary evidence produced.  

Requirement 9: Consideration given to system interoperability at local level, with agreed standards for data collection, storage, retrieval and transfer, based on the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF).

This project is not about IT and non-Trailblazers are not expected to spend their grant on developing technical systems. However, it is important that authorities consider the long-term proposals outlined in the Green Paper in drawing up plans for the future.

Minimum required  
The technical issues paper, published alongside the IRT guidance in August 2003, should have been disseminated widely to all corporate IT colleagues.  
Make IT colleagues aware of the longer term aim in the Green Paper of an information sharing hub, which will need to be e-GIF compliant.  
Where new IT systems are being developed, it is important that the long-term requirements of IRT are considered.  
Further improvement  
IRT integrated into long-term e-Government plans.