Agenda Item 7
BOARD
SHARED INTELLIGENCE
Thursday, 9 December 2010
1
Purpose
1.1
This paper updates the Board on progress with the shared intelligence project
agreed at its last meeting.
2
Recommendations
2.1
The Board is recommended to:
i.
note the report;
ii.
indicate the extent to which it would like to see the transfer of the Public
Health function to the council linked to the shared intelligence project
based on information presented verbally to the meeting.
3
Background and Progress
3.1
At its meeting on 4 November 2010 the Board agreed to undertake a project
that would establish parameters for sharing intelligence between partners and
make recommendations to develop ways through which intelligence can be
shared more effectively.
3.2
Since that meeting progress can be summarised as follows:

The council’s Executive Director for Resources has been briefed and
linkages with the council’s Working Smarter programme have been made;

The draft Project Initiation Document (PID) has been prepared which sets
out the key stages and milestones within the project – an overview is
contained in appendix 1 with a full version of the PID available on a hidden
webpage at:
http://www.walsallpartnership.org.uk/wpindex/shared_intelligence/shared_intelligence_project.htm;

The Partnership Executive Group at its meeting on 26 November 2010
reaffirmed that shared intelligence is its highest priority for partnership
working over the coming months;
Agenda Item 7
3.3

At the same meeting the group asked the Partnership support team to
consider linkages with the transfer of Public Health from the Primary Care
Trust to the council. The team will be exploring this between the despatch
of papers and the board meeting itself and will report verbally at the
meeting;

Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands, who had previously granted
Walsall Partnership £41000 under its Local and Community Intelligence
(LACI) programme, have recognised the changing national context for
using intelligence in local decision making and have agreed for Walsall to
use the funding to support the Shared Intelligence project.
Between now and the next Board meeting it is likely that considerable
progress will have been made. Weekly email progress reports will be
circulated to members of the Executive Group acting in their capacity as
Project Board.
Contact Officer:
Tim Ferguson
Head of Partnership & Performance
 (01922) 652481
 fergusont@walsall.gov.uk
Page 2 of 2
Agenda Item 7
Appendix 1
PROJECT PLAN OVERVIEW
Stage Plan
i)
Stage 1 - Project Initiation:
(top-level activities included in this stage)




Sign-up by Walsall Partnership Board (completed)
Rory Borealis briefed (completed)
Further guidance received from Walsall Partnership Executive
Group
(26 November) to consider the possibility of dovetailing this project
with the transfer of Public Health to the Council. The implications
of this will be scoped out by 6 December 2010 and a conclusion
reported to the Partnership Board on 9 December.
Discussion at Walsall Council CMT (TBA through Jamie Morris/
Rory Borealis)
ii) Stage 2 (top-level activities included in this stage)
Review the new and existing demands for intelligence which are placed
on the Council and its Partners by the changing operating context.
This will involve an analysis of the model and an assessment of its
information needs through desk based analysis, interviews with those
responsible for driving forward activity at each stage of the model and
workshops involving analysts.
Initially officers involved in developing the four-level operating model will
brainstorm an aunt sally of the intelligence needs at each level. They
will also identify practitioners from within Partner organisations who will
be able to test this against existing needs in respect of organisational
management, strategic policy making and service delivery (including
commissioning and area management).
Analysts will be asked to detail the intelligence they provide and the
purpose to which it is put to ensure that the picture of intelligence needs
obtained from users is in fact comprehensive.
This stage will be completed within the next six weeks.
iii) Stage 3
Review resources – people, skills and tools – currently deployed in the
Council and Partner organisations for developing intelligence about
public service demand in Walsall.
Agenda Item 7
Appendix 1
This will be carried out through consultation with managers and analysts
from Partner organisations through interviews, workshop sessions or a
combination of both. It is possible that some of this information will be
collected concurrently with stage 2 of the project.
This stage of the project will be completed by 7 January 2011.
iv) Stage 4
Review practice elsewhere to identify ways where we could be operating
more efficiently, gaps in our knowledge, systems or the tools available to
us. This will involve talking to other areas about their approach.
Telephone interviews and site visits will be used to collect the
information.
A specific gap analysis of existing capacity and capability (in respect of
skills and tools) will be undertaken using the knowledge gained from this
review and the output of stage 3 of the project – this will also focus on
under-used resources.
Currently it is envisaged that gaps will include future demand modelling,
GIS, LLPG, ‘Referral Hub (links to high cost chaotic families)’, social
marketing, capturing demand indicators through customer contact, etc.
The first part of this stage of the project will be undertaken by
consultancy funded through IEWM with conclusions drawn by
consultants working with the Project Team in a workshop session.
Consultants will appointed by 10 December with background research
required to be completed for a workshop during the week commencing
24 January 2011.
v) Stage 5
Make recommendations about how resources can be structured in a
way that most effectively and efficiently meet current demand. This will
be completed by 18 February 2011.
vi) Stage 6 – Project Closure
(top-level activities included in this stage including lessons learnt and
post project review)
To meet requirements of Walsall Council PM approach plus initiation of
implementation project.