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7.1.17 Estart

RELATED READING

This chapter should be read in conjunction with Wakefield Metropolitan District Council Data Quality Policy and Strategic Framework

Record Keeping in Children's Centres


Contents

1. Contributing Agencies
2. Purpose
3. Key Principles
4. User Management
5. Family Data
  5.1 Initial Contact Form
  5.2 Referral Form
  5.3 Primary Family Data
  5.4 Secondary Family Data
  5.5 Events Registers
6. Affiliations
7. Notes Fields
8. Contact Point
9. Activity Data
10. Hard to Reach Groups
11. Custom Fields
12. Naming Conventions
13. Reporting
14. Data Maintenance
15. User Support
16. Training
17. Retention and Destruction of Data
18. Key Documents


1. Contributing Agencies

  • Family Services Strategy and Commissioning, Children's Centre's and Extended Services
  • Children's Services Performance Management Working Group
  • Children's Centre's Area Managers
  • Children's Centre's Administrators


2. Purpose

  • The purpose of the Standards is to ensure a consistently high level of data quality within eStart
  • The Standards identify the primary owner of each data item, who is able to amend it and appropriate audit trails
  • The Standards establish standardised procedures for recording information, incorporating where possible standardization of forms, deadlines and timescales for recording information
  • The Standards identify levels of user and training required
  • The Standards identify helpdesk support procedures
  • The Standards provide data managers and users of eStart with an agreed framework to enable them to manage data collection, data entry, data use and data review


3. Key Principles

The standards adhere to the principles of the WMDC Data Quality Policy and Strategic Framework:

  1. Good quality data is the critical element required to produce reliable performance information, help inform judgments and support better decision making
  2. Good data quality supports accurate and reliable performance comparison and benchmarking against other organisations; helping confirm existing strengths and, more importantly, identify areas for improvement
  3. Data quality is also important in terms of accountability and corporate governance
  4. The Corporate Data Quality Framework allows relationships and dependencies between the elements of the Framework to be explicitly identified
  5. Future developments, both ongoing and potential are likely to affect performance management  requirements, specifically data quality


4. User Management

EStart is a web based system, hosted by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. To log on, a user name, user password is required. User Administration will be managed by the eStart Administrator, who will deal with user log in queries directly. New users will have to fill in an eStart User Request Form which will be signed by the setting manager who will assign the new user to an eStart User Group. Children's Centre's Support will hold a set of setting manager signatures to check against User Request forms. All eStart users must have an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check.

Each User Group will be able to see and amend a different set of data fields, depending on their role.

Senior Management - Read Only Access to all areas, Primary and Secondary data and reporting.

Head of Centre - Full access to primary data. Read Only Access to Secondary data and No Access to confidential notes area.

Managers - Full access to all Primary, Secondary data and reporting functions. Full access to Activity data (events).  Full access to confidential notes and the list of children subject to a Child Protection Plan.

Senior Administrator - Full access to Primary and Secondary data and reporting functions. Full access to Activity data (events). Read Only access for confidential notes area. Read Only access to the list of children subject to a Child Protection Plan.

Parent Support Workers -  Full access to Primary and Secondary data  and reporting functions. Full access to Activity data (events). Full access to confidential notes area and the list of children subject to a Child Protection Plan.

Admin Officer - Full access to Primary and Secondary data and reporting functions.  Full access to Activity data (events). No Access to confidential notes and the list of children subject to a Child Protection Plan.

New users will be added by Children's Centre's Support within 5 working days of receipt of the User Request Form. Amendments to user rights (for example changes to the user group for an existing user) will be completed within 3 working days. If a password needs to be reset, this must be done at the request of the setting manager by email.

All users must have had basic data protection training, which is provided corporately and can be accessed online.


5. Family Data

5.1 Initial Contact Form

Health Visitors will register new birth children and capture as much information requested on the Initial contact Form as possible, consent is required to allow the Children's Centre to make further contact with the family. The PCT will provide monthly birth figures to allow centre's to analyse the penetration rate.

Initial Contact Forms must be entered within 2 working days of receipt.

5.2 Referral Form

Professional or self referrals should be received and input within 2 working days of receipt. All additional family information recorded in the referral form should be input within 2 working days of receipt.

5.3 Primary Family Data

Primary Family Data is identified as: name, address, date of birth, relationship to child and gender. This information would generally be from the Initial Contact form. This data should be updated within 2 working days of notice of change.

5.4 Secondary Family Data

Secondary Family Data is anything over and above Primary Data and is generally collected through referrals and working directly with families. Secondary Data should be updated within 5 working days of receipt or notice of change. Secondary data reporting will be aggregated and reported using the 4 or more rule, and not report where there are less than 4 instances.

5.5 Events Registers

All registers for attendances to groups should be input within 5 working days. All contact sheets from Home Visits should also be input within 5 working days.


6. Affiliations

If a family moves to a different area or starts to access a different setting, permission must be given by the family to share the data from a previous setting. This will mean that they are affiliated to that setting, and information will then be seen across both settings.


7. Notes Fields

eStart allows a general note, a notes history (date, caseworker) and a confidential notes history to be held against each family, carer and child.

  • The general notes should only be used for information that can be made visible on the family details front screen. This should not be used for warnings, the warnings dropdown field should be used for this purpose.
  • The notes history should be used for all information that can be shared across the setting and affiliated settings.
  • The confidential notes history should be used to record information by Parent Support Workers and Children's Centre Managers.

All notes should be written in plain English, with standard spelling and punctuation. Staff entering information should remember that all information recorded about a person on eStart may be requested by that person or their legal guardian under the Data Protection Act.


8. Contact Point

eStart will be used to provide settings with access to Contact Point. eStart will also feed Contact Point with information about children (name, address, date of birth) and the setting/s involved with a child.


9. Activity Data

The following information should be collected for each activity created (initially project proposals) :

  • Description (local name)
  • Provider
  • Project leader
  • Frequency
  • Outcome Type
  • Outcome
  • Access Group
  • Date, start time and duration
  • Aims

It should be noted the above is under consultation.

Activity data is owned by the setting, and shared across all settings and across Family Services as required. Attendance at activities will be considered as secondary data and will remain confidential to the setting and affiliated settings.

Each setting will decide who enters activity data for their setting, depending on the staff configuration. All use types will have access to activity data.


10. Hard to Reach Groups

The hard to reach groups should be used for information that becomes known to a setting through the registration or referral that indicates the family as being in a hard to reach group. Each setting will need to ensure that this information is kept accurate.


11. Custom Fields

Currently custom fields are used to indicate:

  • Childminders
  • Volunteers
  • Bottle fed babies

These are locally chosen indicators that are set up where there are no other fields available to use.


12. Naming Conventions

All names should be properly entered, following the guidance from contact point to ensure compliance.


13. Reporting

There are many reports built into eStart, including attendance and contact by age, ethnicity etc. Where possible these reports should be used to ensure consistency across settings. Additional reports will be written to meet local reporting needs (local performance indicators, additional monitoring requirements for other agencies etc).

If a new report or an amendment to an existing report is required, please contact the eStart Administrator who will liaise with Capita.

Local Authority monitoring reports will be pulled off eStart on a quarterly basis, according to the advised reporting timetable. Settings will be informed which reports are being used for monitoring purposes and are advised to view the reports to ensure that correct information is being reported.

Reporting will follow the same rules for confidentiality as access to data within eStart, i.e. that primary family data and event type data can be shared across settings but that secondary family data and individual activity attendance is confidential to the setting a family is registered with (and affiliated settings).

All data within eStart except for the notes fields will be aggregated and reported on by the Local Authority, maintaining confidentiality (i.e. not reporting any statistics where there are fewer that 4 instances).

The local authority will regularly update the postcode tables within eStart which identify locally agreed areas. These will include Children's Centre reach areas and Super Output Areas. All reports can be run by geographical area.


14. Data Maintenance

All key data fields will be checked on a regular basis by the eStart Administrator. This will include missing data and identified duplicate records. A monthly data cleaning routine will be carried out by each setting, using appropriate reports across the district to ensure consistency in the accuracy of data. The data will then be corrected by the settings.


15. User Support

For problems logging onto eStart, users should contact the eStart Administrator.

To request additions to the drop down menus, users should contact the eStart Administrator.

For questions relating to database functionality (i.e. problems with software) users should            contact the eStart Administrator or the Capita Helpdesk.


16. Training

All eStart users must have received basic Data Protection training. This will be provided corporately and be accessible online.

All other training required for Children's Centre's on inputting procedures and introduction of    new functionality or modules (i.e. Cost Effectiveness, UNA, and SEF Builder) will be given by the eStart Administrator and training coordinators from Capita where necessary.


17. Retention and Destruction of Data

The Local Authority Retention and Destruction Policy are currently under review and will incorporate procedures for Children's Centre's and the eStart database.


18. Key Documents

  1. eStart User Request Form (awaiting design)
  2. eStart User Termination Form (awaiting design)
  3. Children's Centre's Initial Contact Form
  4. Children's Centre's Referral Form
  5. Children's Centre's Family Plan Assessment form
  6. eStart Affiliation Form (awaiting design)
  7. eStart standardised categories for event types (under development)
  8. eStart Registration Process flowchart
  9. eStart Events Process flowchart
  10. eStart Referral Process flowchart
  11. Contact Point Guidance (awaiting distribution)
  12. Data Cleaning Reports routine (under development)
  13. eStart User Manual (Capita)
  14. eStart Administrator User Manual (under review)
  15. eStart Parent Support Worker User Manual (awaiting design)

For more information, contact: eStart Development Officer.

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