Health & Social Care Information Sharing - A Strategic Framework 2014-2020

Introduction

Information sharing, to meet the needs of people, practitioners and organisations, is essential to support Scotland's commitment to integrated, person-centred care, across adult and children's services.

Building on the progress achieved to date, this document, its delivery plan and the proposed maturity model, identify the challenges, opportunities and tasks that need to be progressed collaboratively to deliver digitally enabled information sharing solutions. It also provides an overview of developments already taking place across Scottish public services to support the sharing of information.

This document has been informed by discussions with organisations and practitioners across the health and social care spectrum and uses as its foundation the activities supported by the Information Sharing Board (ISB). The ISB has established aligned governance and close working links with the main groups and boards involved in health and social care (see Annex A) and this resulting Strategic Framework is intended to provide direction for all organisations involved in delivering health and social care. The Strategic Framework will be subject to regular review as the public sector and information sharing landscape evolves.

The focus of this framework is on sharing information in support of people's interactions with care services. This includes assessment information, notifications that will trigger actions, electronic messaging between organisations, practitioners and people, and business and operational information to support the day-to-day running and planning of health and social care services.

Working within the existing legislative and regulatory framework, as well as the developing legal and policy environment around integration of services, this framework sets out the partnership and information governance foundation required to support cross-sector information sharing. It proposes a set of activities to ensure that consistent approaches to technology development are followed, with agreed cross-sector information standards being developed and agreed. It also provides a set of key principles that underpin these activities and approaches that will be required to support information sharing.

Effective partnerships, both between organisations, and between people, their support network and practitioners, is crucial to providing safe, quality and person-centred care. So at a time when new integrated partnership arrangements for health and social care are being forged, it is vital to consider and plan for the information needs of all concerned.