posted on 2009-04-16, 11:49authored byChristine Bellamy, Perri 6, Charles Raab, Adam WarrenAdam Warren, Catherine Heeney
In recent years, there has been growing concern in the UK that local services aimed at risky or vulnerable people are
ineffective, because of persistent failure to share information about their clients. Despite considerable national policy
effort to encourage better information-sharing, previous research indicates that there are many cases where information is
still not shared when it should be, or where it is shared when it should not be, with potentially devastating results. This
article uses data from the largest empirical study of local information-sharing yet undertaken to examine four policysectors
where multi-agency working has come to the fore. It shows variations in their information-sharing and
confidentiality practices can be explained by neo-Durkheimian institutional theory and uses insights from this theory to
argue that current policy tools, emphasising formal regulation, are unlikely to lead to consistent and acceptable
outcomes, not least because of unresolved conflicts in values and aims.
History
School
Social Sciences
Department
Geography and Environment
Citation
BELLAMY, C. ... et al, 2008. Information sharing and confidentiality in social policy: regulating multi-agency working. Public Administration, 86 (3), pp. 737–759.