West Lothian Council has gone live with a system that
enables 120 social care practitioners to share data about their
most vulnerable clients. The aim is to cut the proportion of cases
where a so-called crisis intervention is required to ensure the
safety of vulnerable children or adults in West
Lothian.
The C-Me application works by enabling social workers at the
Scottish council to see whether colleagues in other parts of the
public sector have provided services to their clients.
C-Me links practitioners from the council, Lothian and Borders
Police, NHS Lothian, the Scottish Children's Reporters Office and
West Lothian Education Schools, enabling them to find out whether a
client or potential client has previously accessed services from
other local departments.
The council's social workers can use C-Me to receive alerts when
their clients are assessed by other agencies, such as West Lothian
Education.
In addition, social workers can request records created by
teachers, but consent must be obtained from the child or adult
before information can be shared. Records can only be moved between
agencies without consent if there is an overriding reason, such as
the need to protect a vulnerable child.
The cost of developing C-Me was met by a £100,000 grant from the
Scottish Executive's information sharing and data standards
department. Ongoing costs are funded by the council, West Lothian's
Community Health and Care Partnership and the Scottish
Executive.
The council plans to extend the roll-out to some 3,000
practitioners as the separate public service bodies incorporate
C-Me into their business processes.
West Lothian Council said, "C-Me will reduce the time spent on
writing assessments as previously recorded forms can be
electronically copied, linked to or incorporated within re-opened
or ongoing cases, and used as templates for future use."
C-Me will deliver the Scottish Executive's social care policies
as they evolve. These policies include its child protection plan
and its looked-after child plan for children living in care.
The success of the data sharing project will be judged by the
outcomes for children and their families.
The Scottish Executive also wants to see the separate agencies
share responsibility for vulnerable children's welfare.