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Information Management Implementation
Information Management Implementation
Implementation
Public child welfare agencies struggle with reconciling the internal needs to develop and sustain effective information management with other competing infrastructure components. The challenges in securing the basic hardware and business intelligence programs to manage complex information systems are based on a number of factors: current capacities; economic climate; and governor’s mandate. Ultimately these challenges and contextual factors must be addressed to align business priorities with key decisions about investing in effective information management strategies. The challenges to implementing effective information management strategies can fall into two broad categories – understanding information management and capacity for information management.
Understanding Information Management
The first step in making sure that a clear understanding exists concerning information management is to avoid several common misconceptions. These include:- Information Management as an Information Technology issue – Information Technology Departments are indispensable in managing the hardware, software and accoutrements needed to keep information flowing. However it is essential to understand that technology is a tool that supports data collection access, storage, and utilization. IT staff should understand the work of the agency’s programs to develop a consumer centric system and not a cumbersome, product centric system – one that aligns technology investments with information management.
- ‘All we need is a good SACWIS (or other) computer system’ – True, it’s difficult to create and implement an effective information management plan without a high quality, integrated, user-friendly system. However, such a system is neither a necessary nor sufficient cause of effective IM strategies. A great deal of powerful information can be created from relatively few bits of data if it is well organized, analyzed and presented (Monitoring Child Welfare Programs: Performance Improvement in a CQI Context). Conversely, the purchase of an expensive system does not guarantee that it will produce the ‘right’ stuff.
A second step in understanding information management is to identify which data are necessary in the quest to improve agency performance. In addition, the outcomes of concern must be clearly identified.
Systems often seem to err on the side of collecting all possible data that might ever be needed. The problem with this approach is that by looking at everything, staff frequently ends up paying attention to nothing. For example, suppose an agency is concerned about runaways. Which of these two information management strategies is likely to have the most significant positive impact on the runaway problem?
- Put together a list of every piece of information that could potentially be relevant in finding runaways (last known location, names, phone numbers and hang-outs of all known friends, account numbers and balances of any bank accounts to which youth has access, etc.) and immediately require all private providers to fax this information to the caseworker within 24 hours of a runaway?
OR
- Carefully examine the available data in the system to get a clearer picture of who is running (e.g., age, gender, custody status), where are they running from (e.g. placement types, particular providers, etc.), why are they running (as a root cause indicator) and when are they running (are there patterns based on day of week, time of year, i.e. end of school, holidays, circus/fair in town, etc.) then build a prevention/recovery strategy based on current understanding of the problem? Answers to these questions are critical to establishing effective remedies
The issue from an information management perspective is to clearly identify the outcomes of interest and then collect the appropriate data that will allow the agency to determine, on an ongoing basis, performance on the identified outcome.
Capacity for Information Management
Implementing an effective information management plan also requires substantial resources, but not just of the moneyed variety. Essential capacity elements include: leadership staff with a shared IM vision with and for all staff and sufficient resources to implement the key processes.
Leadership with a Shared Information Management Vision
While it is unreasonable to expect an agency’s executive team to understand the data system well enough to take a shift at the helpdesk, it is critical that they have a thorough understanding of what is in the system and what it takes to populate and extract data. The executive team must be able to use their critical and creative skills to employ the data at hand and identify system improvements that will improve the agency’s work with children and families. Middle management must share an understanding of the importance of information management. A common tendency is for middle managers to respond to “the question of the day.” Understanding the primary responsibility for executing the agency’s key processes and serving as the “bridge” between the strategic goals outlined and the functional operations to achieving the jurisdiction’s goals requires buy-in from staff at this level.
Frontline staff must also understand leadership’s vision for an effective information management system. This is critical, as staff at these levels is often charged with assuring that data are entered into a system in a correct and timely manner. These staff members perform daily service delivery in compliance with the agency’s practice model. Data collected by these staff are used to measure agency performance and progress towards improving outcomes and a focused approach to develop a deeper appreciation of the importance of data and information should be adopted.