Facilitating secure data sharing between Councils and schools
Could local authorities provide timely insights to schools so they can be empowered to intervene early and safeguard children better?
Project brief
Primary schools serve as vital touchpoints for both children and families, offering crucial support to vulnerable populations. However, identifying and addressing safeguarding concerns in a timely manner presents a significant challenge to schools. We looked at how to bridge the gap between schools and local authorities, aiming to streamline information sharing processes and expedite support for children at risk.
Team: service designer (me), data scientist, software platform provider, school staff, social care staff
User research process
Discovery
We conducted in-depth interviews with stakeholders to understand the current process and what hinders effective safeguarding practices. We conducted journey mapping exercises to outline what the current journey looks like so we can identify opportunities to intervene.
Co-design
We ran a series of co-design workshops bringing together representatives from schools and social care services and employed a user-centred approach to identify actionable strategies. By crafting user stories and exploring "how might we" scenarios, we contextualised the issues and fostered empathy. We prioritised solutions based on their potential impact and feasibility, focusing on quick wins to drive immediate improvements.
"How might we" scenarios developed from user research
Ideation activity conducted using Powerpoint and MS Teams to cater to the needs of the workshop participants
Theory of change
We synthesised the user research to identify key challenge areas:
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Fragmented information and a lack of awareness about the family's situation makes it difficult for schools to notice early signs of child neglect.
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Valuable data held by local authorities remains siloed, impeding collaboration between schools and the council.
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Lack of information sharing and communication exacerbates disjointed working between partners and hampers the delivery of coordinated interventions.
We hypothesised that
if schools were granted access to pertinent social care data,
then it would enable them to proactively identify and address any risks faced by children.
By facilitating this collaboration with social care services, the approach aimed to mitigate risks and improve outcomes for children.
Identifying use cases of data sharing in a workshop
The product solution: data sharing platform
Introducing the ‘Partner Information Portal’, a digital platform designed to facilitate secure data sharing between the Council and schools. This tool provides safeguarding teams with insights into a child's social care history, including active interventions and assigned social workers. Access to this data enables schools to swiftly identify and support vulnerable children, fostering a culture of proactive intervention.
The solution underwent iterative development, balancing desirability (user needs), feasibility (GDPR compliance, technical capabilities), and viability in collaboration with stakeholders and technical experts. We followed the agile service delivery approach, where we first developed quick prototypes to test the idea and our hypothesis (alpha phase), followed by developing the tool and giving access to a small number of people to test it first (beta phase) and then going live with 3 primary schools part of this pilot.
Early mock up of the tool developed to test the idea with stakeholders
Evaluation
We piloted the tool in three primary schools to test the solution. We monitored usage and gathered quantitative data to understand if users are using it. We then conducted interviews with users to understand what the data was telling us and gather qualitative insights on what worked well and what needs to improve.
We received excellent feedback about the tool's utility. Users, i.e., school staff were able to look up information on children they were worried about and bring cases to safeguarding meetings to discuss further. We also received some critical feedback about data discrepancies and data quality. We validated the findings by investigating the data on the backend and understanding the discrepancies which were leading to lower-than-expected usage rates.
Moving forward, efforts are underway to refine data quality and optimise the user interface. The Council plans to scale the platform across a broader network of schools. Next steps include:
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Continued refinement of the platform, focusing on enhancing data accuracy and user experience.
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Integration of the portal into standard safeguarding protocols across additional schools.
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Evaluation and adaptation based on ongoing feedback to ensure sustained impact and effectiveness.
“We have been waiting for this for years. Please do develop this platform further but make it simple and easy to use.”
- Safeguarding lead of a Primary School