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

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.

A wide range of groups beyond the academic community will benefit from the proposed seminar series (for academic beneficiaries see the appropriate section and case for support):
1. non-academic researchers (e.g. in charitable trusts )
2. policy makers and service designers in European, national and local government and in service commissioning bodies and their representatives
3. those involved with regulation and governance e.g. the Information Commissioner's Office and relevant government select committees
4. practitioners and managers in public service provider organisations in public, private and third sectors in, e.g., health, social care (adults' and children's), education, criminal justice, emergency services, housing and employment services. This includes third parties such as IT providers.
5. local and national media
6. interested members of the general public (public service users' forums etc)

The nature of the benefit will vary according to the timing of involvement and the interest of the beneficiary. It is expected that many of the groups listed above will be involved in the detailed planning of the seminars and in that process will increase their circle of contacts with shared interests and will be exposed to new but relevant ideas they might not previously have explored. The benefits however will accrue through the period of the seminar series and beyond. To outline these potential benefits, we have created three categories of beneficiary:

a) Leaders and speakers in the seminar series
This group will benefit most directly (at least 33% of speakers will be non-academic).

Benefits will include:

the opportunity to present ideas to a wide range of interested parties and having one's ideas challenged

the ability to discuss openly issues that may not have been discussed in such a forum previously

the exposure to new ideas from groups as different as systems developers, journalists, politicians, civil servants, practitioners, commissioners, lawyers and information governance managers, and users, from the UK and abroad

the chance to build new networks and collaborations, building on a strong core group as the series develops

the experience of an intellectually stimulating environment building over time, providing the basis for excellent outputs, including academic and other publications.

a greater understanding of the stakeholder perspectives and research gaps, to feed into future research proposals

1. Participants in the seminars

This group will also experience a direct benefit, the degree depending to some extent on the number of seminars attended and the relevance for a beneficiary's work or interest. All six of the groups listed above will be potential beneficiaries.

Likely benefits include:

exposure to new ideas or new ways of conceptualising issues raised by information sharing

meeting people who might be able to support in practical ways (this is particularly the case for the seminars in year three)

learning about models or tools that can be used by organisations to influence decision-making and practice around information sharing

language to enable participation in the debates to challenge dominant discourses in the media, politics and academia.

2. Those benefiting from outputs and outcomes resulting from the seminar series. This group will be longer term, indirect beneficiaries and these benefits might include:

learning from seminar reports or articles

improvements to systems in provider organisations from resultant learning

improved services experienced by the public resulting from resultant actions

improved value for money in public services arising from better information sharing, leading to an improved national economy

It is expected that in the longer term, there will be a measurable impact on the design and provision of public services which in turn will positively impact on the nation's health and wealth.