Information Sharing in Policy and Practice: What needs to be shared (or not shared) when we share information?

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This proposal responds to the urgent challenges posed by the uses of information in governing and delivering public services. Disasters and tragedies have been repeatedly attributed - at least in part - to the failure of agencies to share information. Attempts have been made to fix the problem through a variety of legislative, policy and IT approaches. Yet individuals and organisations still struggle to share information well. Information sharing is a central concern across policy domains including the integration of health and social care, the new smart cities model, ending gangs and youth violence, and the controversial 'troubled families' agenda. Austerity measures are having significant effects as public services everywhere try to do more with less by harnessing information to avoid duplication and repetition. Existing research suggests that the exchange and management of data between organisations and practitioners involved in the delivery of public service has often proved extremely hard to achieve, in particular where sharing involves multiple professions and organisations with different values, standards and traditions. This has been exacerbated as governments have increasingly encouraged a more diverse service supplier base including businesses, charities, social enterprises and community and voluntary organisations. Moreover, data in itself is not enough. To be of use, data must be interpreted. This is not just a technical matter of tools (important as they are) but, also a matter of building the communities who can select and use these tools for specific purposes. The twelve seminars in this series build upon multi- disciplinary, cross-sectoral bodies of work led by the proposers, involving research and practice. These include: The Leicestershire County Council led, cross government-funded national exemplar programme for Improving Information Sharing and Management; Framework for Multi-agency Environments (FAME) funded by the Department of communities and Local Government as part of the national e-government programme in England; and Effective and Appropriate Sharing of Information (EASI)an ESRC Knowledge Exchange Project to pilot and evaluate a multi-agency development programme for front-line practitioners. We propose a three year programme of 12 seminars with a mixed composition of academics, both British and international, together with policy makers, practitioners and service users. The seminars will provide a constructive and open forum for these groups to engage in facilitated, structured dialogue about the real world difficulties that remain to be tackled. Throughout the life of the series, the principal and co-investigators will work towards establishing and nurturing a sustainable 'interpretative community' of academic researchers and non-academic users. Very importantly, an interpretative community does not imply the imposition of a homogenous world view. It is rather a matter of capability and competence in identifying, mapping and working on the boundaries between perspectives to establish the strengths and limitations of each.The nature and scope of the proposed seminars have been developed and refined in close collaboration between the university-based proposers and the national Centre of Excellence in Information Sharing. The seminar series has been warmly welcomed by other potential user groups including Local Government Association and the Department of Work and Pensions. Academic outputs will advance debates within and across Social Policy, Public Management, Social Work and Information Systems. The series will support research capacity building with activities and prizes for doctoral students and early career researchers.