The Scottish Executive identified a requirement to upgrade Criminal Justice IT Systems in Scotland. 11 of Scotland's 32 local authorities (known as the "Unaligned" group) wanted to first define a Requirements Specification for such a system which would meet the needs of the participating authorities.
Business Issues
Social Work units must keep a case record of all work undertaken with all those subject to both voluntary and statutory supervision. The vision was to provide a fully integrated, computer based, Criminal Justice Social Work System (CJSWS). This would be available to all relevant users and would be the primary work tool of CJSWS social workers and practitioners, reflecting practitioner workflow.
The Requirements Specification document needed to cover:-
- General requirements
- Referrals
- Reports
- Action Plans
- Risk Assessment
- Effective Practice
- Court Service
- External Links
- Orders
- Data migration
- Management Information
CAS solution
Based on their knowledge of Criminal Justice and Social Work, CAS created a 'first cut' Requirements Specification which was distributed to all 11 authorities. A number of joint meetings were held between CAS and these authorities where practitioners, managers and IT staff had the opportunity of discussing each requirement in detail. Subsequently CAS met with each of the authorities at their premises and this provided a further opportunity for everybody's 'voice to be heard'. CAS collated all the information from these sessions, updated the document and held a second joint meeting of the 11 authorities to ensure that all their views had been incorporated into the Requirements Specification.
Benefits
CAS documented the requirements of a future CJSWS which was agreed upon by ALL members of the 11 local authorities. This provided a Specification which was to be used as the basis for development of a new IT Criminal Justice System. This approach allowed a Requirements Specification to be agreed upon cost-effectively and in a timely manner.
"CAS worked closely with myself and all 11 member authorities of the 'unaligned' group to understand our current and future needs. It is not always easy to create consensus with such a large group, but they worked tirelessly to ensure everyone's views were heard and to document our needs clearly. The CAS team were particularly adept at handling large joint meetings comprising up to 30 technical and non-technical Local Authority staff, in which a wide variety of conflicting interests were present, and assisting those present to reach considered and workable solutions."
Chris Hawkes, Project Leader