The Pilot Overview

A ‘pilot project’ is operating in the Kirkby area involving practitioners from statutory and voluntary agencies and parents and their children with the aim of testing these different ways of working, the information sharing processes and a potential technical (Child Index) solution in order to enhance the well-being and life chances of all children. Knowsley’s ‘Children In Need’ model will form the basis of this ‘pilot’ activity that will begin during December 2004.

These arrangements will be supported by the establishment of a clear and consistent information sharing framework between those agencies that will govern this activity and provides that the rights of all the parties (organisations, managers, practitioners and service users) are upheld in a fair and proportionate manner.

The ‘Kirkby Pilot Project’ will help us to find out where we can improve Information Sharing and Assessment by continually discussing and monitoring the developments with the practitioners, parents and children in the area.

The Kirkby Pilot Objectives

The overarching objective for the pilot is:

To pilot alternative ways of working based on more effective sharing of information to enhance the wellbeing of children.

This will allow the Information Sharing and Assessment programme team to:

• Test various aspects of the practitioner toolkit including:

• Children in Need procedures

• Lead practitioner procedures

• Compatibility of existing assessment frameworks

• information sharing arrangements

• Verify that the Information Sharing Assessment Vision can be effectively communicated in order to promote the engagement of users and the wider stakeholder group.

• Improve practitioners’ knowledge of services provided by other agencies

• Improve multi-agency working

• Improve appropriate information sharing between practitioner groups.

Other objectives of the pilot are to:

• Test the training programme

• Test the technology and identify further requirements / enhancements for the borough-wide technical solution

• Test the data quality in the initial child index

• Learn from the implementation and roll-out process so that delivery of the Knowsley solution can be made most effective