Lead bidder | Grampian Police, Queen Street, Aberdeen,
AB10 1ZA.
Named individual - Detective
Superintendent Brian Yule, Tel No 01224 386072,
email
brian.yule@Grampian.pnn.police.uk . |
Brief description of the aims of the
project | The aims are to apply systems thinking to
child protection. To then implement a system
for dealing with child protection enquiries
through inter agency working to negate
shortcomings highlighted in recent child death
enquiries and to ensure commitments given in
the 'Protecting Children and Young People,
Framework for Standards' are delivered
upon. |
Clear description of what the EGF money
would be used to buy | The EGF money would be used initially to buy
in the Vanguard methodology and to provide
staff to check the capabilities/shortcomings of
the current system and plan a new system. There
will be implementation costs such as
accommodation, staffing and information
technology. Once implemented, the team will
validate the results. |
Partners to the project likely to commit
resources | Grampian Police Aberdeen City Council Social Work
Department Aberdeenshire Council Social Work
Department Moray Council Social Work Department NHS Grampian |
Evidence that suggests approach has been
deployed successfully elsewhere | The application of systems thinking to child
protection enquiries is entirely new. However,
systems thinking has been successfully applied
locally in the following areas. Housing Repairs - working with a Local
Authority, the time for housing repairs reduced
from an upper control limit of 202 days, with
an average repair taking 46 days, to an upper
control limit of 12 days, with the average
repair taking 4 days. Payroll - errors in a payroll
department have been reduced from 74% to
2%. Elderly Single Shared Assessment -
this was a joint project between a Health
Authority and a Local Council. The time taken
from initial request to completed assessment
reduced from an upper control limit of 220
days, with an average of 55 days, to an upper
control limit of 22 days, with an average of 6
days. Pensions Processing Outsourcer -
working with a pensions outsourcer, a number of
customer measures were improved, for example,
the upper control limit for issuing an early
retirement pension reduced from 185 days to 20
days. Work has been done between Grampian Police
and Vanguard in respect of Firearms Licensing
and a major project is underway concerning the
Courts in Aberdeen examining the time taken
from the person being charged with a crime of
an offence to being dealt with by the
Court. |
Are there any restrictions to enlargement of
the project (ie number of partners) | |
Benefits projected from the project | The long series of public enquiries
regarding child deaths and the abuse of
children have been expensive and stressful.
They have been intelligently conducted; their
analysis of practice looks accurate; and their
recommendations seem sensible. Yet, they are
not leading to the desired improvements in
outcomes for children and families. They tend
to focus on human error and shortcomings in
practice and these, by and large, make up the
conclusions of such a report. The philosophy behind systems thinking is
that this is where the investigation should
start not end. This requires a radically
different type of research than the traditional
enquiry. |
Estimated financial projections | Total | 2004/5 | 2005/6 | 2006/7 | 2007/8 |
Overall project cost | | £200,000 | £15,000 | | |
Estimated projected benefits | | | | | |
Is a pilot required - see guidance notes | In this case, a pilot is not required as the
whole project is a fundamental review of how
the child protection enquiries are dealt with
across the various agencies. |
Additionally: why is eg funding required | EGF funding is required to buy in the
Vanguard services. There will also be a staff
commitment from the organisations involved.
This will mean that each of them has to
contribute one or two staff to the project on a
full time basis. The project is expected to
last around 35 weeks before implementation.
Given the demands on the resources of these
organisations, it is essential that these posts
be back filled. |
Does this project complementary in any way
to other eg work | This project does not complement any other
EG work. |