Data sharing partnership in Lanarkshire

Officials in Lanarkshire announced that their initiative to share patient/client information between agencies had been a success. That conclusion was reached after interviews with staff and key partner agencies.

Senior management encouraged the difficult changes and offered support, from fresh mindsets, to revised working procedures, to using technology. Staff realised that the sharing partnership was not about IT, it was about improving services
 
These extraordinary claims continue: 

At the heart of joined-up care are trusted professional relationships. Don’t even consider communicating complex patient/client contexts by electronic means. Pick up the phone to the colleague you know, or wait till the next team meeting  

If information sharing is in the interests of patient/clients and improved services, there has to be a good reason not to share. Which is a somewhat different mindset to security threats, confidentiality obstacles, silo ownership and sanctions.  

Lanarkshire Data Sharing Partnership (LDSP) was established in 2006 and tasked with Single Shared Assessment and Child Protection messaging. It replaced the Joint Working Across Care Agencies Group established in 2002. This group was responsible for the sharing of older people and adult information i.e. Joint future Agenda and Community Care Act requirements, sharing demographics, assessments/plans, contact and service provision details and service requests for homecare and aids and adaptations. The Children’s eCare Project was established in 2004. Its remit was sharing children’s information and creating and implementing the child protection messaging, linked child protection children and linked child protection adult messages. Annex 1 contains a summary of the Lanarkshire eCare journey (so far) 2002 to 2012.

http://ssrg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Data_Sharing_Technologies_Board_-_8_May_2012_-_Lanarkshire_eCare_Review.pdf

John Kilbride did not know that this project was on the go when his mother was imprisoned in the care home but it explains a lot.

It was obvious to John Kilbride at the time that whilst Social Services refused to communicate with him regarding his mother`s care, they were communicating with all the other agencies involved in her case, including the Housing Department, care home manager and solicitor, as well as other members of his family. How easily joint working across care agencies becomes collusion - too easy in fact, and for that reason should be discouraged.