Data Sharing in the Public Sector

Carnegie UK in partnership with Involve and Understanding Patient Data, have published a useful framework for publishing, managing and sharing data in the public sector. Some useful guidelines and principles put forward for all of us in the Public Sector that want to see data shared and improved public services.

Download the full report here

Data Sharing between Public Bodies

In case you missed it, The Law Commission published its Scoping Report, 'Data Sharing between Public Bodies' in July 2014.

 

The recommendations were:

 

1. We recommend that a full law reform project should be carried out in order to create a principled and clear legal structure for data sharing, which will meet the needs of society. These needs include efficient and effective government, the delivery of public services and the protection of privacy. Data sharing law must accord with emerging European law and cope with technological advances. The project should include work to map, modernise, simplify and clarify the statutory provisions that permit and control data sharing and review the common law.  
2. The scope of the review should extend beyond data sharing between public bodies to the disclosure of information between public bodies and other organisations carrying out public functions.
3. The project should be conducted on a tripartite basis by the Law Commission of England and Wales, together with the Scottish Law Commission and the Northern Ireland Law Commission. 

 The full text can be downloaded at:

http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/areas/data-sharing.htm

Pickles announces £410m for service integration

Councils in England are to share £410m to fund plans to bring together local public service, reduce duplication and cut costs, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles announced today. The funding is part of the government’s public service reform programme to integrate provision and increase sharing .

Details

Data Sharing in the UK Public Sector, the Norm or the Exception?

Since I last wrote about data sharing in the public sector there has been a lot of interest about the growing volumes of personal data all organisations are accumulating. In the private sector customer data is treasured, analysed and reused (with the customer's permission of course). Companies talk of Big Data and hail it as 'the next big thing'. Follow #bigdata or Google it and you will see the bold claims that are made for this new era.

But what about the public sector? We still hear of councils and other public sector organisations resolutely pronouncing that they can't share data because the law prohibits them. When I wrote the first article in August 2012 I set out what I thought was the most challenging of the 4 barriers to successful data sharing. Just to recap these were:

• Legal
• Cultural
• Organisational
• Technical

The most challenging? Culture, people just don't want to change and will use the other 3 to support this. But we all know that the technology can do whatever we want it to do, so people tend to hang on to the 'we can't share because the law says so' argument but cannot really back it up when challenged.

So it was a great relief when Dame Caldicott produced her second report earlier in the year 'Information, to share or not to share' and started to deconstruct some of the 'myths' but perhaps more importantly suggested that culturally we should move towards 'how we can' and move away from 'why we can't'. Dame Caldicott added a seventh principle to the six she established in her first review in 1997

The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality.

This seventh principle was added in response to the growing concern that in healthcare at least, barriers were being erected that were putting patients at risk.

So if our colleagues in healthcare 'get it' what about the other public sectors? One recent case brought to my attention is the DVLA's information about registered keepers of motor vehicles. As part of the Civil Enforcement process (parking tickets to the everyday person) local authorities can request details of registered keepers from DVLA so that they can serve a Notice to Owner (NTO) when a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) remains unpaid.

For the moment let's not comment on the 20% of cars that have outstanding PCNs that have no registered keeper, or the most recent revelation that some drivers are still driving despite having amassed 42 penalty points http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23967547 and focus on what happens to the information provided by the DVLA.

The DVLA contend that information supplied by them to local authorities for the purpose of Civil Enforcement of PCNs cannot be used by the authority for other purposes. This may be true, so for example routinely adding this data to a 'citizen's index' might be unlawful. For example, a matching of unpaid PCN information to Blue Badges issued (an exercise that has routinely produced some interesting results and successful prosecution for fraud, would appear to be unlawful as the data supplied by the DVLA was being used for a purpose other than the one it was registered for. As yet I haven't seen if a registration under the Data Protection Act for DVLA supplied data would be acceptable to the ICO.

But what isn't unlawful is to use the other information that the local authority holds to trace people who have not paid their PCNs. In a recent study I was involved in, of the 9,000 unpaid PCNs that had been returned 'Gone Away' over 1/3rd of those people still lived within the council area and of those, over 1,000 were in council owned housing. So some part of the council knew where the person was, but not the Parking Services people who were using out of date DVLA information.

Sharing data between services in the council netted another £200,000 of unpaid PCNs. Despite the emotive talk of 'cash cows' that often accompanies any discussion on parking, I think most would agree that it is beholden on councils to use whatever information they have to maximise their income and reduce administration costs. After all, collection rates for PCNs hover around 75% which is probably the lowest collection rate of anything local and central government collects, so there is ample room for improvement. Strange how the media interest in this subject never brings out the poor collection rates, but that's another story.

Returning to the topic of Big Data, most commercial organisations are beginning to tune into the value and importance of this to future customer satisfaction and retention. Local councils are just beginning to grasp this concept and re-evaluate the way they have implemented CRM systems. The initial use as a 'front office' system to manage and monitor phone calls is now giving way to more elaborate systems that can tell the council what its customers actually want.

Be this from self-service web based system or face to face and telephone contact, modern systems can now identify exactly what customers want and provide empirical evidence to enable the council to plan future service delivery. The current push by the public sector to provide services that are 'digital by default' offers the potential for significant cost savings, but, providing self-service intelligent forms on the web site is only part of the story.

If councils are going to weather the current 'austerity storm' chances are they will have to STOP doing some of the things they are currently doing. Enabling self-service can just provide 'mess for less' rather than truly transform services.

Without the relevant data, and implicitly the sharing of data, how will local authorities plan to deliver what their customers want, AND dynamically change this as requirements change? Or will they just use the trusted methods of Citizen Surveys back up by some good old Mosaic demographics data?

One recent development that may further the debate is the changes to the Freedom of Information Act that came into effect on 1st September 2013. These changes allow individuals and organisations to demand data sets from local councils in a re-usable format. Although this data is anonymised the fact that the data can be re-used may bring about a glut of FOI requests in the next few months. The changes also allow the local council to charge for the supply of this re-usable data, so this might well fuel the 'cash cow' argument, or further the debate about data sharing.

I suspect this debate will continue for the next few years and there will be many barriers to overcome until we achieve what Dame Caldicott so eloquently expressed.

The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality

There are some good places to continue this discussion. You can try my blog at http://e-mpirical.blogspot.co.uk/ or visit our website at www.e-mpirical.com Tony Worsdall has worked in the public sector for over 30 years and has managed major transformational change programmes in local government and the NHS. Dame Caldicott's report http://tinyurl.com/bn93l57

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tony_Worsdall


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7984075

Caldicott 2: Why commissioners are no closer to knowing how they should handle patient data

Information governance professionals are still left searching for simple answers even after Dame Fiona Caldicott's latest review, writes Peter Wainman
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=22871

Data sharing critical to support early intervention for vulnerable children.

Data sharing critical to support early intervention for vulnerable children.
ow.ly/lbpec

Datasharing Summary

GP data won't be shared if patient objects, DH says#datasharing ow.ly/ku2hS

Data from GP records will not be shared outside practices without patient consent except in emergencies, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.

Millennials More Comfortable Than Their Elders Sharing Personal Data Online

Millennials (18-34) are getting somewhat comfortable with the idea of personal data sharing, at least when it comes with tangible benefits, according to survey results from the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future and Bovitz Inc

http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/interactive/millennials-more-comfortable-than-their-elders-sharing-personal-data-online-28919/

The Dame is not for turning - Data Sharing part deux

So Dame Caldicott is going to have a second bash at data sharing.

Dame Fiona Caldicott is preparing her second review of data sharing and will report in April 2013.

 Long after her influential report of 1997, the effects of Caldicott are being felt and most recently they have come to the fore in the context of the Government’s ‘Troubled Families’ agenda.  Currently the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) are suggesting that local authorities attempt to use health data to help them identify those families most at risk.

Clearly there is often a correlation between health and other  family related issues, but many feel that using health information to ‘target’ families is one step too far. However, Dame Caldicott suggest in a recent interview with Local Government Chronicle, that her second report might suggest a ‘duty of care’ form the healthcare professional to share information that they think will benefit the individual they are dealing with.

This does not suggest a ‘carte blanche’ approach to data sharing but, as Dame Caldicott suggests might create a cultural shift away from the reluctance to share.

Clearly in the context of troubled families and all of the terrible cases that have emerged in the past few years where sharing information between public services may have seem different results, the argument for data sharing seems well made. But will the general public accept that sharing data should be the default option for the future of pubic service delivery?

We can all make the case on the grounds of cost, total place, one point of contact and tell us once, but can we accept that Digital by Default also means that all public servants will have all of our citizens information at their disposal?

Caldicott wil report in the next few weeks, I suspect that the debate on data sharing will rage for a few more months yet.

Lack of data sharing allows drivers to escape speeding points

Now here's another example of poor data sharing.... If you get a speeding ticket and get offered Speed Awareness Training as an option you should only be able to do this once in three years.

Guess what, if you get the tickets in different areas of the country (usually run on County boundaries).... they don't talk to each other so you can get away with taking the course more than once and avoid the penalty points.

Rather a topical subject today methinks.

Full story here

Indonesia promotes pan-agency data sharing

he President’s Delivery Unit and several stakeholders launched a programme called ‘Regional Pilot Project’ which intends to promote openness and sharing of data between central and local government agencies as part of Indonesia’s commitment to the Open Government Partnership (OGP).

Read full article from Asia Pacific Future Gov

Sustained and Coordinated Efforts Could Facilitate Data Sharing While Protecting Privacy

Sustained and Coordinated Efforts Could Facilitate Data Sharing While Protecting Privacy. An interesting perspective from the US. http://ow.ly/i3vBr

Well the blotter is back!

I haven't been posting on the blog for sometime now and there are a couple of reasons. But now I'm back I will share them with you and promise that I will post more regularly.
Firstly, my attention has been elsewhere i.e. Twitter and Facebook and secondly I have been trying to work out how Google + might fit into our marketing activities.
Hootsuite has proven a great help in getting all of my 'stuff' together, but working out how Google expect Blogs and Google+ pages interact has been a little harder for me.

I think I have sorted this now and you blog followers might see more of me in future.

BTW, one of the things that I discovered in my journey is that you can't lie on Social Media. (?) What I mean is that you can't post articles in retrospect and catch up! Still who wants to read old news and comment?

So I hope you will find my renaissance on Blogger helpful to you.

My two main 'crusades' this year are going to be to continue my campaign to get the public sector sharing data and my new focus will be on parking enforcement (which would also benefit from sharing data, but also needs a good dose of 'the efficiency pill'

Data Sharing in the Public Sector

The debate that has been raging for the last 5 years in UK local government has largely centred around setting up the one 'Golden Record' for citizens and usually surfaces at the time a new CRM system is being proposed. It is not unusual for a local authority to have more than 50 different systems containing information about a citizen.

In a recent assignment I was involved with an authority admitted it had 26 different systems that recorded information about the same group of citizens.This is not uncommon: What isn't so common is a clear understanding of what can and can't be done under current UK Law. There are still service managers that swear blind that they can't 'share' Council Tax data despite the Information Commissioners guidance in 2007 that said they can.
I am often asked by council's to 'rule' on what they can and can't share and usually there are a number of different answers.

• Can I share Council Tax information? - Well that's a YES
• Can I 'share' Electoral Roll information? - That could be a maybe. It's a maybe because share and processing information are two different things in UK law (and most elsewhere too.)
• And how can some Councils 'share' data to, for example, validate Single Person Discounts (and in some cases outsource his process to a third party

Well it all comes down to 4 main issues in my opinion:

• The Law - Does the council have the specific legal right to share this data. And because local authorities have many statutory powers, there are lots of laws that govern these powers so crucially examining the right piece of legislation is key.


• The purpose the shared data is going to be used for - If this is a statutory purpose then its likely to be OK, but getting a solid legal opinion on this is vital. Some public sector organisations are using the ICO's Privacy Impact Assessment Tool (PIA) to guide them through this process instead of 'sleepwalking' into a disaster. Remember the ICO is not against data sharing and isn't trying to catch councils out, as long as they have done the due diligence on the impact on citizens of what they are about to do. Some councils have even built the PIA into their project management methodology alongside environmental impact assessment and benefits realisation.


• Is consent needed - again the ICO sets out clearly when consent is and is not required.


• And the real challenge - changing the culture of the organisation from 'we can't share because' to 'how can we share'. And this in my opinion is at the heart of the barriers that get thrown up every time a council is trying to 'do things better'

This cultural barrier has been built over many years and reinforced by the many professionalisms that have been the mainstay of public services. Often people will train for 5 years to become a planner, a benefits assessor, or an environmental officer and they don't take too kindly to the 'new way of working' that sees all the expertise move into the Customer Service Centre were anyone with a bit of training and a good set of call guides can answer 80% of the queries the public has. (Although I have some sympathy as I have seen quite a few of these Transformation Projects go horribly wrong.
So getting all of the stakeholders to agree what can and can't be shared at the start of project is to my mind the key ingredient. We all know the technology can do whatever we want it to do so surely it must be 'the people'?

One last example that illustrates this, and highlight the benefits that could be gained if a different approach is taken. One local authority client had 9,000 unpaid Penalty Charge Notices (PCN's) for on street parking offences where the documents had been returned 'Gone Away'. These documents are sent to the address the DVLA has for the registered keeper. Of those 9,000 cases a third of the people still lived in the same council area, but just hadn't told DVLA, and 1,000 were tenants of the council. So the housing department knew where they were but the parking department didn't. Just collecting these 3,000 PCNs from people who still lived in the council area brought in an additional  £250,000.

There are some good places to continue this discussion. You can try my blog at http://e-mpirical.blogspot.co.uk/ or visit our website at www.e-mpirical.com  Also try the Data Connects Linkedin group

First article published on EzineArticles

I earned the "Expert Author" badge on @EzineArticles. Check out my profile to see what else I've done! http://ow.ly/d5bQA

Data sharing across five separate police forces has seen improvements in the fight against crime

o if the Police can do it, why can local government? An excellent artice from publicservice.co.uk

Can the Public Sector in the UK afford not to share data?

A recent report by Chris Yiu at The Policy Exchange suggests that £33bn per year could be saved with better use of citizen data. But is the public sector ready to take a leap of faith and start using their own citizen data in a much more joined up manner. Read the recent White Paper

Deloitte Report - Should legislation be introduced to force local government to share services

A great post from the Great E-mancipator, commenting on the Deloitte report about shared services and whether legislation to make local government share services would be practical.


http://greatemancipator.com/2010/01/10/a-new-start/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGreatE-mancipator+%28The+Great+E-mancipator%29

Audit Commission publishes report on use of information in the public sector

This report looks at how councils use information to make decisions. It encourages chief executives, senior officers and lead members to be more demanding about the information they seek and use when making decisions. The report also suggests ways to improve in both these areas.

http://tinyurl.com/mhbn39

Government may renew data sharing plans

From Kable

Justice secretary Jack Straw has said the government is keeping its options open on new legislation for data sharing

http://www.kable.co.uk/information-commissioner-s-office-jack-straw-14may09

Compex User Group

Tony is speaking at the Compex User Group on 14^th May 2009 at Chiltern District Council.

'doing more with less' is the theme, and Tony will look at

• Data Sharing
• Improving Processes
• Better Collection and
• Channel Migration.
  

To download the IRRV article on Data Sharing click here

To download the e-mpirical white paper on data sharing click here