Despite repeated, high profile, tragedies across the country, the public sector is still in the starting blocks with respect to personal data sharing - even though this issue is always cited as being the main reason that agencies failed to act in time.
And it isn’t just catastrophic system failures, it is also clear that improving the impact of early intervention / prevention strategies is dependent on the ability of agencies to have access to a holistic picture of the needs of citizens – once again predicated on the sharing of personal data.
Despite a widespread understanding of these opportunities and senior level strategic commitment (across central and local government) to increasing cross agency personal data sharing - examples of systematic data sharing across agencies remain limited.
Why?
The challenges to delivering personal data sharing are varied and cross legal, cultural and technology boundaries. However, it appears that even where legal gateways exist and security requirements met, agencies remain reluctant to relinquish control of their data.
The most common response to this is to commission the development of high level Data Sharing Protocols that are then authorised at an executive level across local government organisations.
These documents then often sit, gathering dust, primarily because they lack the granularity / detail to give operational teams the comfort and safeguards they need to share data at a practical level.
For example, what is the likelihood that a PCT is going to give medical information to the Benefits team of a Council because their respective Chief Executives have signed a Data Sharing Protocol that said ‘in principle’ they should share personal data to prevent fraud?
What we offer
Our Data Sharing Protocol development service provides a structured approach to engage business users in the development of practical data sharing agreements.
In addition to helping agencies to clearly document a discrete ‘data sharing purpose’, we can also assist in the identification and documentation of the specific data elements, from across agencies, which would need to be shared.
Critically, we can also support the implementation of these detailed data sharing protocols in a secure, auditable fashion through our unique technology platform.
The Xantura Technology Platform (XTP) provides a secure through which data can be shared across agencies – with all data accesses controlled by detailed data sharing protocols that have been defined by partners at a local level.