FrAmework for Multi-Agency Environments (FAME) : Final Report of the Learning & Evaluation Strand

Framework for Multi-agency Environments (FAME) was one of the Local Government On-Line funded National Projects sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). Within FAME there were six local projects (known as strands) led by English local authorities in partnership with service providers. Each strand aimed to improve a particular set of services (for example, to vulnerable older people or disabled children) through effective and appropriate exchange of information. These local projects worked with IT suppliers (known as technology partners) to produce a technical system to facilitate the exchange and management of client / patient information across agency boundaries. Not all the outputs of FAME were in the form of IT systems. Improvements to business processes and information sharing practices were also expected. Newcastle University led two further strands, the Generic Framework and Learning & Evaluation. The Generic Framework identifies and describes nine building blocks that are essential to effective multi-agency working. The FAME website http://www.fame-uk.org contains details of these building blocks, together with a ‘how to’ guide and a toolkit to support local authorities and their partners in assessing their ‘readiness’ for multi-agency working. This is the report of the Learning & Evaluation strand. The Learning & Evaluation team worked closely with the local FAME project teams, who were supportive of our work and generous with their time. Throughout the project we reported back to the local teams both individually and collectively. Evaluation was thoroughgoing and critical, not an exercise in public relations or advocacy. It is important to stress that learning is likely to be gained from what did not work as well as from what did. Problems and setbacks, as well as successes, are therefore documented and analysed in the report

Intervening to improve outcomes for vulnerable young people : a review of the evidence

Concerns about the number of young people who fail to reach their potential at school, or get into trouble, or are not in education, employment or training (NEET), underpin the continuing commitment to end child poverty in the UK by 2020, and the Coalition Government’s pledge to increase the focus on supporting the neediest families and those with multiple problems. A strong policy commitment to improving the life chances of vulnerable young people has in recent years led to the testing of a number of initiatives. This review sought to identify: the common barriers to the effective implementation of new initiatives; elements of effective practice in the delivery of multi-agency services for vulnerable young people and their families; the costs associated with integrated service delivery; the outcomes that can be achieved; and whether fewer and more targeted initiatives might offer better value for money, particularly during a period of fiscal reform. Includes: •Introduction to the Review •Identifying and Assessing Vulnerable Young People •Multi-Agency Working: Innovations in the Delivery of Support Services •Delivering Interventions and Improving Outcomes for Young People •Assessing Value for Money in Interventions To Improve Outcomes for Young People •Looking to the Future: Defining Elements of Effective Practic

Seeing the full picture? Technologically enabled multi-agency working in health and social care

The implementation of local e-government in England touched all public services and affected front-line workers across local authorities and partner agencies. Professional 'cultures' are invoked rhetorically as barriers to the translation of this policy into practice. We propose that the concept of 'street-level bureaucrats' offers a more nuanced and grounded framework to think about local responses to centrally driven change

Evaluation of the whole system approach to young people who offend in Scotland

The Scottish Government’s Whole System Approach for Children and Young People who Offend (WSA) aims to prevent unnecessary use of custody and secure accommodation wherever possible, through the availability and use of services; and to seek opportunities to engage such young people, by putting in place a more streamlined and consistent response that works across all systems and agencies (a ‘whole system’ approach) to achieve better outcomes for young people and their communities. This evaluation, commissioned by the Scottish Government, examines the operation of the WSA in three Scottish local authorities. It combines scrutiny of WSA policy documentation and guidance notes, with a set of 33 qualitative interviews with WSA practitioners and stakeholders, observations of WSA meetings in each case study area, and quantitative analysis of relevant management data

Developing the application of systems thinking within the policing and community safety sector : an action research study

The increasingly complex, dynamic and pluralistic nature of the policing and community safety environment is presenting a significant challenge to the problem structuring and solving approaches traditionally used by managers in this sector. In light of deficiencies of traditional approaches, developments in the field of systems thinking have sought to tackle problem situations more holistically, employing a variety of systems approaches in combination to improve success in problem situations of greater plurality and complexity. In particular, Critical Systems Thinking (CST) has evolved as a theory and philosophy to support multi-methodology problem solving. This action research focuses on the actual and potential use of systems approaches in the policing and community safety environment.The opportunity to address prevailing real-life problems through a series of practical systems interventions within a large UK police organisation, producing learning for both practitioners in the sector and for systems thinking more widely is the foundation upon which this action research study is justified and a number of salient findings have emerged that are of relevance to both communities.This action research has recognised the opportunity to improve the impact of CST through the wider devolution of appropriate capability. A recursive model to reflect upon the deployment of approaches appears to provide a coherent framework for recognising the concurrent existence of CST at different ‘application’ levels and for informing a deeper understanding of the role of the facilitator of CST; be that a specialist, an organisational leader or a member of the workforce involved in change. A particular value is seen in enhancing such development through the employment of culturally acceptable approaches, including the concept of policing problem archetypes that provide a platform for demonstrating the practical value of a diverse range of systems approaches.The research has identified value in the facilitator gaining and sustaining an appreciation of the landscape of diversity within problem situations and identifying centres of gravity in terms of defining features. It has also emphasised the validity and practical value of employing multi-methodology in parallel in both modes 1 and 2 in problem situations involving a variety of stakeholders that reflect multiple paradigm diversity. As the problem situations encountered in the policing and community safety sector increasingly involve multiple agencies, recognition of an improved capability for deploying such systems thinking is of particular relevance, such as through participative large group processes.An extensive exploration of the role of the facilitator of CST through the employment of a complexity lens has added clarity to the nature of that role within typically wicked problem situations. Extending the concept of the effective interventionist beyond the boundaries of the facilitator’s direct influence and recognising the variety of capability that the facilitator might require to secure improvement in diverse client systems.The research has also resulted in the development of a heuristic to enhance understanding of the role of the facilitator of CST. This formula identifies the variables that the facilitator of CST might need to handle in order to secure improvement in pursuance of an objective function for optimisation comprising a range of relevant measures associated with a variety of paradigms, subject to the incremental fulfilment of the condition for change reflected in the ‘Beckhard’ change formula