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Spackman
A, Glastonbury B and Gilbert D (1997) There's no such thing as a simple
piece of information New Technology in the Human Services Vol10:2(2)
pp. 10-14
Abstract Early in 1996 the Department of Health (DoH) started work in England on a project which aimed to contribute to information about the implementation of the Community Care Act. Specifically DoH wished to have some statistical returns showing the extent of referrals, assessments and packages of care provided to adult clients by social services departments (SSDs). On the face of it, this might seem a relatively simple and straightforward task. Surely, after all, SSDs receive adult referrals (older people, people with disabilities, and so forth), carry out a needs assessment of each one, and then, if warranted and if resources permit, provide services to meet identified needs? Shouldn't this mean that they have the ability to offer figures over a given period of just how many of these tasks have been carried out? In reality, however, measuring activity turns out to be a difficult and complex task. The aim of this paper is to use the project as a case study, to try to describe and analyse why such difficulties arise, drawing heavily on the report of the initial scoping study (Spackman, Gilbert, Glastonbury, 1996). |
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The journal has now ceased publication (2003) |