Projects

TRACKING CHILDREN AND ACCOMPLISHING RISK: E¬ASSESSMENT IN CHILD WELFARE

Summary

There have been longstanding concerns about inter-professional communication and collaboration in child welfare, particularly highlighted in the recent Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie, the Laming Report. One response to this problem has been the Information Sharing and Assessment project (ISA) (previously known as the Information, Referral and Tracking project). This involves the creation of a database, which will enable concerns about children at risk to be exchanged between child welfare professionals. Alongside the database, there are various e-technologies to promote communication, assessment and tracking. The project has been piloted in 10 local authorities and will be established nationwide following legislation and guidance.

This research will study the implementation of the ISA project and consider the implications of e-technology in child welfare for relations between professionals, children and families. It will contribute to the study of e-Government. The questions to be addressed are:

• How far do developments in e-technology in child welfare improve inter-professional communication and early intervention responses?
• To what extent do child welfare professionals embrace or resist increased use of e-technology?
• How are accountability, categorisation and risk affected by these developments?
• How is information passed and 'translated' between professional groups?
• How are issues of consent and confidentiality handled and what are the implications for relations between children, families and professionals

It is anticipated that the study will be of interest to several audiences. Professionals and policy makers will be able to consider implications in terms of inter-professional communication and early intervention. Children and families will be interested in the implications for confidentiality and the spread of personal information. Academics will be interested in the interaction between e-technology and professional practice.

The study will look at ISA projects and associated e-technologies in everyday professional practice in four local authorities - two where the ISA project is well developed and two at earlier stages of development. There will be particular interest in changes in early intervention strategies, the nature of multi-agency assessment and intervention, and communication between professionals.

Data collection and analysis will consider a mixed of qualitative and quantitative data, based on children who are identified as 'causing concern' - analyses of case files, interviews and focus groups with professionals, children and families, the observation of inter-professional meetings and the use of new technology. Data on local authority performance and structural change will also be analysed.

The study will last two years and is in collaboration with the NSPCC.

Outputs

Narrative Conference, Tampere, Finland, 29/6/07 'Is Narrative losing ground? Information and Knowledge in child welfare electronic assessment'.

University of Ulster/Letterkenny Institute of Technology, 'Culture in Innovating Organisations' Donegal, 7/6/07 'Technology driven innovation and its intersection with professional practice'

Oxford Internet Institute/e-Society Expert Symposium 'From Identity Management to Citizen-centric Government' Oxford 7/6/07 'e-Assessment in child welfare: a case study of children-centric government services'

E-Society 'Information Sharing, Assessment and e-Technology in Social Care, Seminar, York 15/5/07 'Information Sharing, Surveillance and Categorization'

Discourse and Narrative Approaches to Social Work and Counselling, Jonkoping, Sweden, 4/5/07 'Descriptive Tyranny of the Common Assessment
Form: Searching for the Narrative'.

British Sociological Association, University of East London, London. 13/4/07 'Descriptive Tyranny of the Common Assessment Framework: Technology, Child Welfare and Professional Practice'.

E-Society 'Surveillance and Privacy in an e-Society' Seminar, Docklands, London, 11/4/07 'Looking and Seeing with an Electronic Eye: the Child Index and the Aspiration for Tracking in Child Welfare

Publications

Hall. C & Peckover S. (2006), Creating and Managing Electronic Concerns; e-Assessment in Child Welfare. Presented at FORSA Conference, Social Work in the Info Age. Helsinki 09 February 2006.

Hall, C, Peckover, S. and White, S. (2006) 'E-Assessment in Child Welfare' Paper to the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, York September 2006

Peckover, S. White, S and Hall, C. (2006) 'Making and Managing Electronic
Children: e-Assessment in Child Welfare' Paper to the Information, Communication and Society conference, York September 2006