Information sharing

"For working with partners, information sharing protocols must be agreed, and systems established to enable secure access as required"

The Council of the Future will be one that works closely with other public, independent and voluntary sector bodies in the local area to deliver joined-up and integrated services to everyone who needs them. This will mean that information MUST be shared between them - otherwise the different organisations will each be working completely in the dark about what the others are doing - and since they're all serving the same customer base, this can result in considerable waste of resources.

Sharing information does not necessarily mean losing control over your own information, or prejudicing its security - so long as you have the necessary informaton sharing protocols between the organisations, and appropriate security controls over who can access what.

Information sharing protocols are agreements about who may access what information, and what restrictions there are on its use. They are agreements between organisations and provide the legal framework within which information can be shared - and the basis for claims in the event that the terms of the agreement are breached. 

Providing shared and secure access to each other's information is more of a technical issue - setting up the necessary permissions and connections between networks, to allow for partners to the information sharing protocols to access the information they require. Security can be provided at many different levels - through the software applications themselves, which can restrict what different types of user can view or change, through the network and its firewalls, which can restrict the physical access to certain specific connections or users, and through auditing mechanisms that keep track of who accesses each piece of information, and what they do with it.

Practice tends to show that at the early stages of a partnering arrangement, there is considerable emphasis on protecting the information - providing access only to the absolute minimum of information, and strictly monitoring how the information is being used. But as time gos on, these restrictions tend to drop away, until in some cases, there is a complete and open sharing of infomation, to the ultimate benefit of the customer or client.