Coming together in Braunstone for Braunstone

Anita Saigal,
Engagement Manager,
Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing

In April, my colleague, Stuart Bolton told you a bit about Braunstone Blues, a blue light, local authority and health collaboration in the Braunstone area of Leicester that engages with residents to reduce demand on the emergency services, the city council and the health services.

To help them further develop and improve their information sharing we facilitated an information sharing workshop for partner organisations at the end of April to look at what could and could not be shared, with or without consent, and the effect that sharing would have on the people of Braunstone.

I am pleased to say that we had a very useful workshop with a wide group of people from Leicester Fire and Rescue Service, Leicestershire Police, East Midlands Ambulance Service, University Hospitals Leicester, Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council amongst others.

Attendees identified several barriers and enablers to sharing information within the project, some centring around the confidence to share information and having that awareness of what you can and can’t share.

We then ran some exercises to help people explore and understand different agencies’ approach to supporting service users and gain a better understanding of how information sharing develops a better understanding of service users’ needs and help them achieve better outcomes.

Many found that when they could see the bigger picture in relation to all of the issues the individual or family had, they were better able to identify underlying problems, intervene early before problems got worse and tailor the support needed.

As a result of coming together, they were able to identify actions to improve information sharing. Some of these were more technical and focused on Information Sharing Agreements and Privacy Notices. However, many recognised the need to build relationships with additional organisations, have training tailored to their specific needs and sit down with representatives from appropriate organisations and discuss what is available and what is needed to identify information that would be helpful in achieving better outcomes for the people of Braunstone.

We are putting together a report which will bring together all of the findings from the day – so keep an eye out, it will be with you soon.