Family Information Direct News
18/03/2010 - LATEST NEWS
Spring Maintenance Release
The Family Information Directory Team will soon start testing a maintenance update to the Family Information Directory (FIDy). System vendors have been advised of the planned improvements and will be working with the Directory team over the next four weeks in a test environment to ensure all systems are compatible before going live. This test period will not affect ongoing Directory operations.
What is changing?
The core software of the Family Information Directory is being updated to fix known issues and to improve existing functionality. For example, local authorities have asked for functionality which enables channels that host the Directory to acknowledge them as the data source and provide a link back to the local FIS for each of their records as well as a change which will allow non-standard postcode formats to be entered into the search box.
When will the changes happen?
After all changes have been fully tested with system vendors in a ‘beta’ environment, they will be released in two phases to minimise any disruption to Directory operations and to maximise benefits to local authorities, channels and end users. The first phase will deliver fixes for outstanding known issues and modifications to improve existing functionality in mid April. The second phase will deliver ‘under the hood’ changes towards the end of June 2010. These changes will be invisible to the general user but will provide the platform for further extension of the Directory.
Where can I find more information?
A full description of the planned changes entitled Spring Release Plan has been prepared for system vendors and channel partners and is available on the FIDy support site under the Documents section in the Technical Documents folder. A summary document for non-technical staff at local authorities will be available very shortly.
10/03/2010
NAFIS conference 18 March 2010
The Family Information Directory team will be attending the NAFIS conference and running a workshop on 18 March 2010. The workshop will share experiences of embedding the Directory into online services as well as a demonstration of the new management information reporting tool and plans for improvements in the presentation and display of FIDy information.
The FIDy team will also be available throughout the day to answer questions.
Funding framework for 2010-11
Funding arrangements which cover the ongoing operation and development of the Family Information Directory locally were outlined in the recent Memorandum of Grant (MoG) for the 2010-11 Sure Start, Early Years & Childcare Grant (SSEYCG) and Aiming High for Disabled Children (AHDC) grant published on 19 February 2010. To view the MoG see
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/news-and-communications/la-weekly-email/laemail18february2010/
Paragraphs 30 and 31 of the MoG state
30. This funding can help you support the work of your Families Information Service (FIS), as per the requirements of Section 12 of the Childcare Act 2006, in providing the information and advice that parents need to support their children up to the age of 20.
31. This funding can also be used to help you maintain, and make available, the Family Information Directory (formerly known as the Parent Know How Directory); review the effectiveness of Family Information Services (FISs) and agree and implement an improvement plan to ensure you are meeting your statutory duties in respect of section 12 of the Childcare Act 2006. This may include signing up to the quality standards and award scheme, Families First, run by the National Association of Family Information Services.
Provided the services and activities which the funding streams target are delivered, local authorities have the freedom to decide how much to spend on each area.
Latest channels
To keep you up-to-date with the channels that have integrated the Directory into their online services, the current list is now displayed on the support site home page.
When recommending where to find information, LAs can choose from the variety of options available to suit the needs of parents and families locally. For example if a single father wants information it may be most appropriate to suggest DadTalk. If the Directory is available on the LA’s own website then this may be the favoured option.
A number of LAs have already embedded the Directory into their online services.
If you are planning to add a Directory search to your own site and have any questions about the process, please email familyinformationdirect.directory@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
Do we have correct contact details?
We want to ensure that information on Directory developments is reaching the right people in your local authority. If you are no longer involved in the Directory and wish to be removed from the circulation list, please email familyinformationdirect.directory@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk with a request to be removed. If there are colleagues who need to know the latest information, please send us their contact details or ask them to email us with a request to be added to the list.
15/02/2010
NFSD
List of all national organisations who have given permission for their service details to be uploaded to the directory will be updated and made available from this site by NFSD Team on a monthly basic. In addition, it also states the relevant duplicate records uploaded by LAs that have been removed from the directory search results.
This document can be found in the Documents section under NFSD.
NFSD Full Records Directory V1 0 Jan10.pdf
Use of the Quality Assurance Element
Each directory record - ECD or FSD - must have some information in the Quality Assurance element. Different local authorities may have different policies on the level of quality assurance they apply before including services in their directory. It is therefore important for parents to be informed about what level of quality assurance has been applied to a particular service or provider. A new document is available for guidance on the use of this element.
Use of the Quality Assurance Element.doc
29/01/2010
Family Information Directory formally launched
Children’s Minister Dawn Primarolo formally launched the Family Information Directory at the Family Information Direct showcase event held in London on Tuesday 26th. Over 400 delegates attended the event from local authorities, parenting practitioners and family support organisations.
There was a lot of interest in the various implementations of the Directory by different channel partners such as the Becta Home Access site and Hampshire local authority. Home Access is a new initiative to get computers into the homes of children currently without access at home and embedding the Directory takes it directly into the homes of these families. Hampshire’s implementation integrates the Directory into their own website and allows local users to search for local and national information as well as see information in neighbouring authorities without having to move between different sites.
If you are planning to add a Directory search to your own site and have any questions about the process, please email familyinformationdirect.directory@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
We’ll keep you updated as new partners roll out their implementations. In the meantime there was a query following our message on Monday about what CMEC stands for. This is the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission – formerly the Child Support Agency.
Changes to Directgov
The presentation of Directory information on Directgov has been amended recently in response to user feedback. Please note that you may need to refresh your browser page to see these changes.
Further enhancements are in development and, following the addition of the new search tools for childcare and family services, the entire service will be further user tested and updated to reflect feedback.
25/01/2010
Update on Directory channel partners
Following the announcement before Christmas of the first channel partners to host the Family Information Directory (FID), Parentline Plus and Dadtalk, the following channels are now live:
Information for Families
Directgov
Dadtalk
Parentline Plus
Becta / Home Access
Hampshire Local Authority
1BigDatabase
In addition, the following channels are in development and are scheduled to come online over the next few weeks:
CMEC
Netmums
Bounty
Mumsnet
Looking Local
Special Need Informed Parents
Relate
Single Parent Action Network
If you are attending the Family Information Direct showcase event in London tomorrow, do visit the Family Information Directory stand to find out more, including a new mobile application for the Directory.
Remember, if you planning to host the Directory on your own local authority website you will need to sign the terms and conditions for channel partners which govern the use of the Directory’s search and discovery web service. A copy of this together with guidance notes can be downloaded from this support website.
New name for the Directory
Following the renaming of the Parent Know How Directory to the Family Information Directory, we are in the process of updating the support site and related materials including the web page toolkit and the marketing toolkit. As mentioned, although there will be a change to the name it will be incorporated into the existing branding developed for the Directory, so there will be minimal change to the logo and marketing materials.
The Directory will be formally launched tomorrow (26 January) at the showcase event for local authorities and other workforce practitioners at the Business Design Centre in London. We are currently developing plans for a wider public facing marketing of the new name beyond 26 January and will keep you updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
As you know, the Family Information Directory support site contains a section on Frequently Asked Questions that is regularly updated. Please visit the site to see the latest information.
One question that we have added recently covers a regular query from childminders concerned about the accuracy of their location information. You may find this useful in responding to similar queries. http://www.pkhdsupport.org.uk/default.aspx?page=viewqanda&module=qanda-view&id=104
20/01/2010
New name for Parent Know How programme and Parent Know How Directory.
You may have seen that Support for All: the Families and Relationships Green Paper announced the new name for the Parent Know How programme as Family Information Direct.
This new name is the result of feedback from stakeholders and parents. Our aim is for Family Information Direct to become a ‘badge’ indicating a constant and trusted source of information and support that suits the needs of families across the country.
In line with this, the Parent Know How Directory will become the
Family Information Directory reflecting the preference expressed by a number of local authorities for a name that signals that the Directory is a resource for the broader family. This also has the benefit of making a clearer link between the Directory and local Families Information Services.
As mentioned, previously, although there will be a change to the name it will be incorporated into the existing branding developed for the Directory, so there will be minimal change to the logo and marketing materials.
We appreciate that this may impact on local plans for marketing the Directory and the marketing toolkit for the Directory, available from the support site, will be updated as quickly as possible.
We will keep you updated on developments.
12/01/2010
Changes affecting channel partners using the PKH Directory search and discovery interface.
The recent upgrade of the core PKHD aggregator software to v1.10 necessitated a re-upload of the controlled list vocabularies (subject categories, language, access channels etc). Unfortunately this resulted in the URIs used to access some of the controlled lists being altered. This will only affect those search and discovery implementations that use any of the controlled list vocabularies.
The correct access URIs for all the controlled list vocabularies (including the main subject vocabulary) can be seen at https://www.parentknowhowdirectory.org.uk/terminology/listvocabs.
In order to ensure continued correct access the controlled lists the URIs within your application must be reconfigured to those defined in the list above.
For example the URI for accessing the subject category controlled list has changed from https://www.parentknowhowdirectory.org.uk/terminology/vocabs/6/topterms to https://www.parentknowhowdirectory.org.uk/terminology/vocabs/11/topterms
Please also see the full release notes detailing this change available in the "Parent Know How Directory" section within Technical Documents on this web site.
14/12/2009
We have been working closely with partners, including Ofsted, recently to identify solutions to some of the data issues you have raised with us. We have reached agreement on several issues and discussions are underway on others. This note provides an update on the status of three of those issues – updating provider contact details, age ranges and maximum number of places and provision of pre-registration information.
Updating contact details for providers
We are aware that many LAs were concerned that they weren’t able to add provider contact information, particularly phone numbers and email addresses, if providers contacted them directly with an update.
LAs must not overwrite information provided by Ofsted but they can append new contact information (telephone numbers and email addresses) within their local systems, upload that data to PKHD and suppress the information provided by Ofsted.
I’m sure you can appreciate, this cannot apply to details associated with childcare provider’s registration, including their physical address. Any change of address requires a new inspection prior to the details being changed. Providers are under a legal duty to notify certain changes to Ofsted – please remind them that they need to contact Ofsted’s National Business Unit to update their information with Ofsted. The number for the NBU is: 08456 404047.
We are currently developing a business process to ensure that there is clarity about the roles of LAs, providers and Ofsted in updating provider contact information. Ofsted will not be able to make the changes to their database until they have made contact with the childcare provider and verified the information themselves. This means that there may be a delay between LAs adding new telephone and email information, the Ofsted database being updated and the new information being included in the download. We will write to you again shortly to advise on that process.
We do believe that this clarity on phone numbers and email addresses will help you provide an improved service to parents.
Age Ranges and Maximum Numbers
A number of you have raised concerns about age ranges and maximum numbers of places. We can provide some clarity on this issue but cannot, at this stage, offer any light in terms of resolving the issue.
For providers who are on the Early Years Register only, the maximum number of children a provider may care for is recorded in the field marked 'age 0 - 5'.
If the provider is on both the Early Years Register and Childcare Register the field marked ‘age 5 – 7’ will denote the maximum number of places overall. The ‘age 0-5’ field may or may not have data; if it does it would relate to the maximum numbers on the Early Years Register.
Currently the best source of information about maximum number of places and numbers in each age range is contained within the conditions of registration.
It’s not yet clear whether a technical change to the Ofsted database is possible but we will continue to work with Ofsted colleagues on this.
Provision on pre-registration information
Without a change to primary legislation the only way Ofsted can provide this data is by seeking and securing consent from applicants for registration. This would require a range of changes to be made to Ofsted systems and processes. There are still difficult issues to be resolved but we hope in the long term we can work towards a solution. We must be clear though that because there is no legal duty on Ofsted to share this information, it is unlikely to be considered as a high priority in terms of system changes.
In the meantime, LAs may be able to seek information from childminder applicants when they go to LAs for their application packs and pre-registration briefing.
However, we do acknowledge there are a number of reasons this isn't ideal:
- it only covers childminders and not other childcare providers;
- not every prospective childminder that attends the pre-registration briefing will go on to apply for registration; and
- in order to comply with an EU directive on the provision on services Ofsted will, in the future, be obliged to accept direct applications online. The purpose of the directive is to enable individuals from other EU countries to apply. Ofsted do not intend to advertise this as an application route within the UK and if applications are submitted directly to them, they will strongly recommend that applicants also contact their LA.
In the longer term, we have agreed with Ofsted that we will draft a specification for system and process changes relating to provision of pre-registration information to LAs. We must be clear though that an initial piece of analysis is needed to establish whether the costs associated with the changes needed to provide this information, which are not required by law, are not prohibitive.
We are also discussing further developments of the Directory with NAFIS and will provide more information in due course. However if you have any comments or further queries, please do get in touch:
parentknowhow.directory@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
07/12/2009
National Family Services Database - update
The National Family Services Database (NFSD) team is working with national organisations to collect and publish their national information in the Parent Know How Directory (PKHD). As you know, local authorities no longer need to collect and maintain records on national providers of services for parents as the PKHD support team is managing this centrally.
So far the team has uploaded 994 records containing basic information (organisation name and contact details) and is contacting service providers to agree more detailed entries on an ongoing basis. Note that, where national organisations provide services regionally e.g. Relate, the responsibility for agreeing and capturing the information is with the local authority where the regional office is based.
Deletion of duplicate national records
Many local authorities will have transferred their existing data to the PKHD and this data may include a number of national providers. As we add more national organisations this will result in duplicate records, which will need to be deleted.
The NFSD team will delete from the Directory national records uploaded by an LA where they are identified as duplicates of a record collated centrally. These records will only be deleted once the national organisation has given consent and in most cases have provided the exact information about the service(s) they offer. Local authorities will see that a record has been identified as a duplicate and rejected when they next upload to the Directory and may wish to then delete this record from their local database.
Over time this process should reduce the number of duplicate entries within the PKHD and build a comprehensive database of national service providers.
Latest statistics
As of 2 December there were around 170,000 records in the Parent Know How Directory split evenly between childcare and family services records. Searches on the Directory are averaging 28,000 a day, up from 20,000 a day at the start of October.
The majority of local authorities are now loading childcare records directly and the PKHD team continues to support the remaining authorities experiencing technical or other difficulties.
19/11/2009
Update on terms and conditions including draft T&Cs for channel partners
Terms and conditions of upload
The latest version of the terms and conditions (v2.00) and accompanying notes and guidance are available for download from the Documents section of this site under the heading "Terms and conditions".
The previous version (v1.02) of the terms and conditions and associated notes and guidance were developed in consultation with NAFIS and FISs. They addressed all issues that had been raised to us by authorities and NAFIS in relation to earlier versions. We are now issuing version 2.00 as the definitive agreed terms and conditions for uploading to the Parent Know How Directory. This version includes only one amendment to version 1.02: paragraph 19 has been refined to reduce liability of local authorities.
If you have accepted an earlier version of the terms and conditions, you don't need to do anything now. The revised version together with notes of what has changed will be sent formally to the registered contact for the terms and conditions at the email address you provided. If you haven't yet signed terms and conditions, please download version 2.00 and notify your agreement to parentknowhow.directory@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk as set out in the accompanying notes and guidance.
Terms and conditions for channel partners draft available for comment
The terms and conditions of upload and the notes and guidance do not cover your reuse of information held in the Parent Know How Directory.
The separate Parent Know How Directory terms and conditions for channel partners, govern the use of the Directory's search and discovery web service by local authorities and other channels' who can help Directory information reach parents. Version 0.10, a draft for comment, is now available in the Documents section in the Terms and conditions folder.
The draft has been developed in consultation with NAFIS to ensure that it mirrors the consent being obtained by local authorities from providers and addresses the concerns raised by FISs about the reuse of their information. There are a number of safeguards built into the terms and conditions to prevent misuse of information.
If your local authority wants to publish information from the Directory online or in print or have frontline staff advising parents using it please review these terms to confirm that you will be able to agree to them. You may also want to review them to satisfy yourself of the ways that third party channels may reuse the information you upload to the Directory. Any comments on the draft should be emailed to parentknowhow.directory@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk by 3 December 2009.
09/11/2009
Contact information for parents and providers searching the Parent Know How Directory
The Parent Know How Directory is available on http://familyservices.direct.gov.uk/ and http://informationforfamilies.dcsf.gov.uk/
When searching for information, if you have any of the following problems please contact your local Families Information Service (FIS) directly or call 0800 2346 346 to be put through to your local FIS:
- You cannot find the information you need
- You are a service provider whose service appears to be missing from search results
- You are a service provider whose information is incorrect
If you have a any other query about the information contained in the Directory, please email info@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk.
05/11/2009
Enhanced Support Offer for LAs
We wrote to Local Authorities on 22 October about activity going on behind the scenes to resolve various issues in providing and displaying information in the Parent Know How Directory. Since then we’ve announced the availability of an interim public website for the PKHD at http://informationforfamilies.dcsf.gov.uk/, based on the ‘Find It’ test site.
The activity that LAs are undertaking now falls into three broad categories, depending on the status of their Directory system:
- those who are concentrating on resolving issues so that they can be removed from the childcare ECD contingency solution
- those who are successfully loading records to PKHD but who are now focusing on checking data quality
- those who are looking at distribution channels for PKHD such as implementing a search tool on their own LA and/or partner websites
To help LAs in each category over the next two months, the Department is supplementing its support offer as follows:
- introducing a new ECD contingency team to support LAs in moving to direct uploads of childcare data
- focusing the existing PKHD expert team on advising LAs on data quality issues
- updating the web page toolkit and related documentation. This toolkit is a package of customisable components which will help your local web team integrate the Directory to suit the style and format of your site.
LAs are continuing to receive support from their local system suppliers and the PKHD Helpdesk is also still available for technical and non-technical queries:
Email: support.pkhdirectory@tribalgroup.co.uk
Phone: 0845 873 0132
Remember, all the supporting materials and documentation for PKHD are available on this support website: www.pkhdsupport.org.uk
The focus now is on improving the content and distribution of the Directory to provide the best service for parents and to prepare for the public launch in January 2010.
Parent Know How Team
04/11/2009
Development of Temporary Site
Recently we have received a number of queries regarding the status of the “Find It” website and, in particular, whether there are plans to make this a live site for the Parent Know How Directory.
As you will recall from the PKHD Implementation Handbook (Chapter 6, p29), providing access to Directory information for parents ‘will not be through a single “PKHD website”, but through numerous channels, both local and national.’ Our aim is to ensure that the Directory is on sites that parents use, including your own authority sites.
The “Find It” site was only ever intended as a test site for local authorities (LAs) to check that their data has uploaded properly and is of the quality they would like before going live.
We are, however, aware of the disappointment among LAs and providers about the current service on Directgov. There are a number of reasons for this but as a result we have made a version of the “Find It” site publicly available on a temporary basis at http://informationforfamilies.dcsf.gov.uk/ . This will be available for a few months only until the Directory is hosted on other sites and we encourage you to include the Directory on your own local authority website.
The temporary site will be switched off once we are content that the Directory is available through a suitable range of channels, with the appropriate quality of information.
Please note that the temporary site will continue to publish limited Ofsted information only for those authorities needing to use the childcare (ECD) contingency solution. It is therefore important that you continue to upload all and any relevant information, in the appropriate fields, in order for us to offer the best available service to parents.
We very much hope this helps the move towards a better solution for you and parents in your area.
NAFIS consent form template – version 6 now available
Following a consultation process, which ended on 19th October, NAFIS have received a number of suggestions from FISs which have been used to inform final revisions to Version 6 of the PKHD Consent Template. This template is now available on the NAFIS website http://www.familyinformationservices.org.uk/index.php. As before this is a suggested template which LAs are under no obligation to use and NAFIS would suggest that you have the content approved by your own legal advisers.
Duplicate records – a reminder
We have received requests from local authorities asking us to issue a reminder that all LAs should check that they are only uploading records from their own local authority area to PKHD. One example was where an LA found around 15 records from services based in their area that had also been uploaded by a neighbouring authority.
Note also that, as mentioned in the PKHD Implementation Handbook, where services are provided by single organisations that cross local authority borders (i.e. regional services or national services with a varied local presence) agreements should be reached between local authorities to decide who should be responsible for updating the PKHD to avoid duplication.
03/11/2009
Ofsted Data Feed
Ofsted have advised that Local Authorities should, wherever possible, time their extracts for the period 01:00 - 04:00 and avoid the time between 18:00 and midnight where the service is likely to be unavailable due to maintenance and data refresh activities.