One of the biggest challenges faced when managing high-risk complex cases is the ability to receive timely information.
Trivallis, one of Wales largest housing associations partnered up with South Wales Police and Cardiff Council to share information on high-risk cases and vulnerable adults for the sole purpose of delivering better support to their tenants.This saw them shortlisted to win two awards this month by Resolve ASB for Best Project Award and the Community Safety Award by CIH.
“This is an innovative, sustainable solution to sharing information between the Police and the housing sector which is showing real success. It’s the first time this has been done in the UK and we’re excited to see how it can improve the identification of vulnerable people and further prevent issues escalating at the earliest opportunity.”
Bonnie Navara, Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner
Why information sharing between agencies creates safer communities?
The public sector is known to work in isolation, often making decisions with the little information they possess about people and cases, losing sight of the wider vulnerabilities and potentially missing opportunities for early intervention. This is more apparent for Domestic Abuse and High-risk cases where having the right information to make timely decisions is critical, as more often than not, it is a matter of someone’s life.
Multiple Acts have been brought out by the UK Government recognising that information sharing is key to create safer communities. From the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 through to the Future Generations Wellbeing act with the remit ‘Right intervention at the right time’ with the emphasis on prevention.
Despite this, information sharing still remains a contentious topic for organisations managing Crime, Domestic Abuse and ASB. However, speak to any victim of Domestic Abuse that has suffered tragedy, each of them will tell you the stresses they felt having to repeat their stories to different caseworkers and officers. They often found themselves ringing multiple agencies after being referred to various organisations and service providers.
Working in silo’s can cost lives
One such case is Rachel Williams, domestic abuse survivor, campaigner and ambassador for Womens Aid, who is now campaigning that information sharing is key and would have saved the life of her son. Read the findings from the Independent Police Complaints Commission here.
““I encourage services to interact more with victims and survivors of domestic violence and also share information, because vital information becomes lost and we need more intervention.””
Rachel Williams, domestic abuse survivor, campaigner and ambassador for Womens Aid.
Trivallis’ multi-agency approach
With budget cuts happening across the sector, and fewer officers at the disposal of tenants and citizens, it seems like the most obvious strategy is partnership working to deliver a single holistic service. After all, a single citizen and case have multiple touchpoints from the police, health provider, housing association and various social and charity services. This means sharing information, sharing resources and perhaps looking at effective tools and technology to support this joined-up working process.
Trivallis needed to set up a process to deal with information sharing with the aid of technology to be able to handle more cases with the same number of resources internally. They were looking to widen their intelligence and share resources between agencies to work on cases.
By opening up access to intelligence through Locality’s Cluster Case Management solution and resources, they were able to achieve more with less, improve efficiencies in meeting tenants and victims’ needs whilst setting appropriate support pathways for victims and perpetrators.
Cluster CM enables multi-agency working through its collaboration module. Sharing a workspace and setting appropriate permissions mean officers only see the information they are allowed to see and share additional intelligence. With Cluster’s Alerts and Notifications module, resources are notified electronically via text message, alerts and email when a new incident is added to help officers and partner agencies pro-actively case manage.
Stay tuned for our next blog on Thursday where we will give you an insight into how Trivallis uses Locality CM.