Interagency Information Sharing: Lessons Learned from the 2006 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Child Welfare Collaboration Grantees

For service providers to collaborate effectively, they must be able to act on shared information.

This brief focuses on common barriers and facilitators to information sharing across agencies, as experienced by a cluster of discretionary grantees funded by the Administration for Children and Families in 2006. Grantees led 5-year demonstrations of collaboration between Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and child welfare service programs with the goal of improving child welfare outcomes.

The brief is organized by five common barriers to information sharing:

• Organizational culture
• Knowledge and understanding across agencies/departments
• Communication between agencies/departments
• Confidentiality and privacy
• Data collection, recordkeeping, and reporting

Grantee efforts to address these barriers are shared throughout. The brief also touches on short-term client outcomes related to information sharing and the future of systems interoperability for supporting dual-system families.