Information current at August 2017
Contents
Background on the IRIS update project and release cycle 1
Managing the September IRIS release across partner agencies 2
Non substantive case – no change in September 2
Client details page – various changes 2
Case details tab – various changes 3
Related persons tab – various changes 4
Issues tab – no change in September 5
Service Activities tab – one change 5
Closure Tab – no changes 5
A note on third party providers 5
Name of document 4
Background on the IRIS update project and release cycle
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There are related pieces of work underway that agencies will start to see impact in IRIS releases from September 2017. The drivers for these changes are:
· The Victorian Auditor General’s May 2015 report into ‘Early Intervention Services for Vulnerable Children and Families’ recommended work to improve the areas of ‘non-substantiative cases’; outcomes measures and children’s details in IRIS.
· The DHHS board has agreed that Family Services will test the use of the department’s core set of outcomes metrics developed through the community services system outcomes project (CSSOP), along with Family Services specific outcome measures. A working group is currently working on prioritising outcomes measures for testing in IRIS. The first of these changes will not be released into IRIS until January 2018. A high level view of the outcome domains is available in the department’s 2016-17 strategic plan: https://dhhs.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/201610/Department-of-Health-and-Human-Services-strategic-plan-2016-2017.pdf
This document details the September 2017 IRIS changes, and where relevant or known will flag anticipated changes for 2018. The changes planned for 2018 under development.
You will see below that the September changes are small and revolve around changes to the demographic information collected about clients and also the related children and partners of clients. Changes are necessary to remedy some significant current shortcomings of our understanding of our client group; for example we currently rely on the primary carer’s Aboriginal status which means we significantly under report on the Aboriginal children we work with. Some of the demographic changes will improve our ability to understand who our services are, and are not reaching.
The September changes will apply to new cases and cases that are open at the time of the IRIS release.
Future 2018 changes will be more significant and will take place alongside significant implementation activity such as training, and of course a review of the IRIS data dictionary.
Managing the September IRIS release across partner agencies
The next version of IRIS is expected to be released in very early September. All agencies should have updated their IRIS version within about 6 weeks of that date (by 10 October).
The client/case referral system (tracking) in IRIS will work between participating agencies only if they are all using the same version of IRIS.
The next version of IRIS is expected to be released in very early September. All agencies should have updated their IRIS version within about 6 weeks of that date (by 10 October).
The client/case referral system (tracking) in IRIS will work between participating agencies only if they are all using the same version of IRIS.
It is therefore important for Child FIRST and Integrated Family Services Alliances to coordinate their update to the new version of IRIS. Alliance partner agencies will need to agree on dates to:
- Complete the referral and tracking back of cases between Child FIRST to Integrated Family Services in the current version. No cases should be partially tracked across when the update happens.
- It is recommended, where applicable, that any cases ready to be tracked back/closed and referred back to the Child First agency before the IRIS update. This will save workers from having to complete additional fields for cases that are about to close.
- Update all version of IRIS across the Alliance to the new version (1.12.0). During the update period no cases should be referred or tracked in either direction.
- Once all agencies have updated to the new version of IRIS the referral and tracking back of cases can resume.
Non substantive case – no change in September
The Victorian Auditor General’s May 2015 report highlighted the significant and growing number of a non-substantive cases. A range of changes to the non-substantive case are planned that will provide a small amount of additional information on families, if known. These changes have not been prioritised for the September release.
In the meantime DHHS is reviewing the fields available in Team Room reports. In the future we will seek to include some non-sub reports in Qlikview.
Client details page – various changes
The client page is shared by multiple programs, limiting the Child FIRST and Family Services specific changes we can make to it at this time. In the future we will have dedicated client pages for Child FIRST and Family Services. We will be able to add additional fields and have different fields mandatory at different times. In the meantime you’ll notice some small changes.
Sex – replaced by ‘Gender’
The sex field has been updated to Gender, with the additional option of ‘other’, and the inclusion of a new transgender field with the options of yes, no, and not known. The field is optional for the time being.
These changes allows IRIS to be much more contemporary in the information it collects and this field will apply across all programs using IRIS.
A new ‘safety alert’ tick box
Located under the address section. This field was requested by providers and allows agencies to flag where there is a safety issue associated with a case or client – there are no other features associated with this field at this time.
Four ancestry fields replaced by two: ‘Country of Birth’ of mother and of father
These fields are not yet mandatory but will become mandatory for Family Services in the future. This is in line with modern demographic information collections and will allow us to better see who we are, and who we are not working with.
Proficiency in English
Some small text changes – ‘How well speaks English’ now reads ‘Proficiency in spoken English’ and ‘Language other than English’ is now ‘Preferred Language’. Both remain mandatory.
A new field ‘Proficiency in written English’ is included but not yet mandatory.
Other small changes
‘Client code’ has been renamed the more accurate ‘Agency Client ID’
‘Household type’ has moved to the case tab to sit alongside ‘Housing type’ and ‘Housing tenure’.
IRIS will now display the client’s home DHHS Local Area, based on their suburb.
The ‘migration program’ field has been removed
The auto-generated ‘Reference code’ and the ‘SLK’ (Statistical Linkage Key) have moved to the bottom of the page.
Case details tab – various changes
Referral Source Int/Oth
Expands to “Referral Source Internal/Other” and allows free text if the referral sources of ‘other’ or ‘internal from this agency’ are selected.
New display of related people
We are still concerned that not all children in a family are recorded in IRIS. A new field in the top section of the case tab relays the number of children and partners recorded in the related person’s tab. This is a prompt for case workers.
Income source
One of the income sources has been made mandatory.
For cases open at the time of the September release workers will have to go back and add an income source.
Significant wellbeing concerns – raised profile in the list of fields
The Significant wellbeing concerns, Referrer protected and Unborn referrals fields relate to part 3.2 of the Children Youth and Families Act. The object of part 3.2 is to enable a confidential report or referral to be made about a child if the referrer has significant concern for the wellbeing of the child (or unborn child).
There have been times Child FIRST providers have assumed all referrals meet the significant concern threshold for recording purposes, however this should always be assessed case by case.
In the future we will add definitions of these fields within IRIS for workers (currently contained in the IRIS data dictionary), and will add significant wellbeing concern flags into some reports in FSI (Family Services Information) Qlikview.
Related persons tab – various changes
The related persons tab is subject to some change in the September IRIS release and more should be expected in later releases. The September and later changes are geared toward building a much better understanding and oversight of all family members, particularly children, including their individual demographics and outcomes.
New way to initiate a ‘new related person’
The single ‘New related person’ button has been replaced with three. This allows a much reduced list of options under each, and in the future will allow different mandatory fields for different categories of people. The three options are
· ‘New child’- the objective is that every child in the family is recorded.
· ‘New partner’ – this should record who is living in the home or having contact with the children. IRIS gives the option of identifying partners, or partners who are also perpetrators of violence. There are no business rules around this field, and later versions of IRIS will need to find a way to attribute a perpetrator status against any individual.
· ‘New other related person’ – the list of options includes extended family members as well as unrelated professionals, neighbours etc.
‘Sex’ replaced with Gender
This change mirrors the changes at the client level, however the transgender field that is included on the client page will not be included in the related persons fields until a later date.
Name and Aboriginal status to become mandatory
Previously only ‘Sex’ ‘Age’ (often an estimate), and ‘With client’ were mandatory.
· First name and surname will become mandatory from September. This reinforces the significance of other related people such as children and partners/other parents.
· Indigenous status will become mandatory. This will allow a significant leap in our understanding of our Aboriginal children, young people and families.
For cases open at the time of the September release workers will have to go back and add names and Aboriginal status for any related people where this is missing. We encourage practitioners to also ensure that all children are included and their details, including date of birth are accurate
New fields added to replicate the demographic fields available for clients
Several new fields have been added including English proficiency, language preferences and country of birth. These have been built to flag that in the future the same fields will always be mandatory for both clients and family members. These will become mandatory once IRIS and implementation issues are better understood.
Future changes to related people
Additional demographic details
Related children and partners will have the same mandatory demographic information as the ‘client’. This includes current fields and, in the future a small number of new fields including LGBTI and disability status.
Statistical Linkage Keys
As we move to a version of IRIS sometime in 2018 that can link outcomes to individual children it will become more and more important that we identify all children accurately. There is a plan to create an SLK (Statistical Linkage Key) for all children and all partners. The name and date of birth must be accurately recorded for this to be possible. Accurate SLKs will allow the department and sector to understand at an aggregate level essential features of our services such as repeat clients and shared clients (for example with services like Child Protection).
Privacy aspects will be part of the scoping , but SLKs can’t be traced to individuals. The data will not be perfect, but should be sufficient to build an understanding of the pathways of cohorts of families through services.
Outcomes metrics
Outcomes metrics for inclusion in IRIS are currently being prioritised by a working group. IRIS may require significant changes to enable their inclusion and testing. Implementation of both the outcomes metrics test and the associated IRIS changes will require significant effort and work with the sector. The Early Pathways Unit will communicate updates on this work through fact sheets, forums and newsletters.
Issues tab – no change in September
The issues section of IRIS is an area that may see considerable change in 2018 as the IRIS issues overlap with various probable outcomes metrics. More information on what this is likely to look like will be provided once the scoping of an IRIS architecture that can accommodate these metrics has occurred.
Service Activities tab – one change
Client/Family Participation
The existing field ‘Participation’ has been renamed ‘Client/ Family Participation’ and will be made mandatory from September.
This is an important field for understanding practice in family services, including how often children, mothers and fathers are directly involved in service delivery.
This field will be mandatory for service activities entered after 1 September 2017
Closure Tab – no changes
The closure tab is another one that may be redesigned significantly with the implementation of outcomes metrics.
A note on third party providers
There are a small number of third party provided software platforms in use by family services agencies or in the planning stages. These aim to provide case management or other features not included in IRIS, that can export required fields to DHHS like IRIS. Some of these platforms have received considerable time and support from the IRIS helpdesk team in their establishment, however the reliable and accurate export of data has not been easily achieved.
The IRIS helpdesk does not have the resources to support third party providers to the degree they have in the past. Agencies using or considering using third party providers may have difficulty successfully replicating IRIS changes in a timely manner, particularly those changes anticipated for 2018, which will be more significant than the August 2017 changes.
Organisations considering a move to a third party provided platform s for Child FIRST or Family Services must ensure discussions are held with the Early Pathways Unit early in the planning stage.
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