Why oh why do we still hear about the tragic cases of children like Daniel Pelka?  My wife and I are loving parents to two children and like most normal people are shocked at how some people treat their kids.  I rarely discuss business with my partner as I work very long hours already and she has had little interest in what I do on a day to day basis…..  Until now.

We recently started providing restricted information services with a new version of pam (restricted IL3 pam).  It is a pan government accredited* collaboration platform with rich functionality that helps criminal and social justice agencies work better together.   This is great for sensitive areas like child safeguarding, child sexual exploitation, offender and victim working, gangs, organised crime groups, and troubled families as well as ASB.  As such for the first time ever (we have been together for 25 years) my better half is taking an interest in what we do, and has urged me and our pam people to try and help prevent these tragedies from happening in the future.

I’ve been operating in and around the public sector now for the past 5 years, working more around organisational change, partnering and strategic collaboration with our core pam platform.  Not long I know, but long enough to know that most people delivering public service care deeply about their impact on society and want to do a great job.  Sometimes they are prevented from doing that by their tools and systems (which is why we invented pam), and of course there is always the odd individual who cares less and just wants to see the day pass by.  Those people wont survive in the future public service workplace.

The tragic death of Daniel Pelka is one of a long list that make the mainstream news but many more do not.  His case review has been discussed in detail in papers like the Daily Mail and the BBC.

From a multi agency perspective the topic of information sharing is brought out.  Sharing information is not an easy matter when it comes to sensitive cases and we understand how concerned the public and practitioners are about private details being shared inappropriately.  And the challenge goes beyond information sharing into actually doing work well together as one team, whether that is (ideally) in the prevention and support, or sadly for something like a serious case review after a death.  Talking of working as one, we also work with One Team Policing, pam partner specialists in these areas.  One Team has developed solutions within and around pam to help drive change across policing and other agencies, to enable better results with agency partners on the subject areas noted above.

This whole multi agency world is in need of change and Daniel’s case reinforces that.  I gave a provocative presentation recently to an audience of public sector professionals on the need to act different and introduced the rational and emotional case for change.  You can see the video on youtube and see the slides courtesy of slideshare.

We cant make a difference alone and for sustainable success you need more than a great cloud based technology platform like pam and its partners.  You need strong leadership and an appetite for doing things differently, preparing to shake up old habits and behaviours.

Many of our customers are on this path, like Dorset PCC Martyn Underhill aiming to join up the County’s partners better than ever before, and Greater Manchester Police with its partners.  They are sharing their vision and looking to us for helping deliver an integrated work environment that has their ‘customer’ (whether they are a victim or other subject) right at the heart of the experience.

With pam our front line police, health, probation, social workers and other professionals focus on what they need to do well and worry less about how they do it.  As I say in my presentations, if you care then share but if you believe in better then pam it.  My wife’s name is Paula and she now realises that pam was worth me spending all those hours with after all……..

Can you pam it?  We would love to help so give us a call on 01273 704500.

*pan govt accreditation has subsequently been achieved and announced here.