Study title

Mainly qualitative data collected during pilot multi-agency practitioner development workshops on information sharing for those delivering public services. Data sources are post-it notes, flip chart sheets and questionnaire style forms written by participants of the workshops. The collection also includes associated commentary files.

This one year project aims to improve how information is shared between different organisations delivering public services, whether in the public, voluntary or private sectors. It does this by piloting a short multi-agency practitioner development programme, extending the impact of previous research on information sharing and multi-agency working conducted by the project team. This is a collaborative knowledge exchange project, partners being the University of Bradford, Leeds Metropolitan University, the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council and the national exemplar project 'Improving Information Sharing and Management'. A programme will be devised to supplement, rather than replace, traditional training on information governance and security. It will challenge professionals' thinking around information sharing, mainly by encouraging an understanding of the different contexts within which the agencies work. In particular, research indicates that practitioners will share information more appropriately when they realise that their different organisations need to approach confidentiality in different ways, in order to perform their respective functions correctly. The pilots will take place in Bradford, Manchester and Leicester, the materials being revised in response to evaluation to take place during the training and subsequently. The programme materials will be made freely available at the end of the project.