If you work in delivering public services, the chances are you will share information on a daily basis. It's a fundamental action that underpins the way the world works. The need to share may be a constant, but the importance of the information in question, and the way it is shared can vary greatly from organisation to organisation.

From sharing email contacts for a partnership communication campaign to sharing intelligence between the police and social services to support a vulnerable family, the potential outcomes are poles apart – but both examples highlight not just the need for information to be shared, but that the way it is done and its timeliness can be critical.

Implementing successful sharing is by no means a one-size-fits-all solution and it is affected by factors other than the perceived technological issues of a new database or compliance with the laws that govern data protection. At the Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing (the Centre) our work has been to identify and better understand the cultural aspects that play a major role in the way that people choose to share or not share information.

We work with local places and central government departments to investigate, challenge and overcome cultural barriers to information sharing to help public service reform. Many of the influencing factors that we work with focus around a set of core themes:

• Leadership - having strong leadership to ensure that work is kept on track and in line with key objectives;
• Vision and collaboration - understanding the key vision for a project and enabling effective collaborative working between partners;
• Risk management - identifying and managing the risks, both internal and external, related to information sharing;
• Citizen engagement - working to engage the local population in the key decisions around information sharing;
• Partnership working - developing and maintaining understanding and trust between all partners and stakeholders;
• Professional development - building the confidence and capability of practioners to handle and share information.

Have your say
Knowing what cultural and people factors are affecting the way the public, private and independent sectors share information is at the very heart of the work of the Centre, so we are running a survey to ascertain the current views across all public services about information sharing. 

With your help, we will be producing the first annual report on information sharing: State of the Nation. This will give a detailed picture of the information sharing opportunities and challenges that are currently impacting on you. It will also allow us to target our help and inform how we better support public service improvement and reform through improved information sharing.

We need readers of The MJ to visit www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/infoshareuk, take the survey and give us your views on how information sharing can be improved and what resources and support you and your organisation would benefit from.

Nathaniel Aust is dissemination coordinator at the Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing