Any agency can obtain a PIE Abacus licence, either exclusively for its own work and services, or on behalf of others - whether in a local practice network, a consortium, or a wider project such as a research project or a community of practice - in which case it will be called, for these purposes, the Lead Agency.

There are many ways in which this could be useful; and currently three main ways that we envisage a Lead Agency role with a PIE Abacus.

Three scenarios

Firstly, the local authority, or any other locality-based service co-ordinating and planning group, may create an Abacus network for services in their locality, for example as part of a survey or consultation on gaps and barriers as experienced by staff and users of services; and also on any practical proposals for better bridging of those gaps. The local planning group then creates the Abacus network, and invites all services and other groups in the area to be contributors.

Secondly, a network of services with a common purpose and perhaps common history, but with autonomous local organisation, may decide to work together to create one or more shared Abacuses, for their work. Any one of them may then offer to be Lead Agency on behalf of them all. (This network can be, in effect, the natural basis for the peer review option for smaller and more isolated services.)

Thirdly, a research institute wishing to conduct a study on practice related to complex needs services can invite a range of contributions from agencies or individuals. By using on-line software, removing the limitation of geographical proximity for in-depth exploration, a far wider range of participants becomes possible.

These three possibilities are to be illustrated and outlined as some of the possible 'scenarios', which we are currently still drafting.

Sharing the costs

In each case, any agency or group that does not have an account of its own can be given licence codes under the terms of the Lead Agency's account*.

But once the initial licence and Abacus structure has been set up, where some potentially participating agencies themselves are already using the PIE Abacus under a licence of their own, there is no additional cost to inviting them to join. . In this way, local networks of practice, for whatever purpose, can grow 'organically'.

For more on the costs, see: Weighing the costs and 'value added' of the PIE Abacus : HERE

• NB: Although technically the lead agency is the licence holder and thus the 'owner' of the Abacuses, by the default settings for this software none are able to see or edit anything other than their own input data. Being Lead Agency does not confer any additional rights, powers or access to the data, even if the permissions to view are set up so that all participating agencies are able to view and share their own data.

The simplest, most effective way to evaluate and improve your PIE from Daniel O'Brien on Vimeo.

All PIE Abacus FAQs : HERE

Library items

PIE Abacus - essential briefing for PIE leads' (and any others in comparable roles), HERE)

Weighing the costs and 'value added' of the PIE Abacus : HERE

The PIE Abacus - applications in particular settings:

The PIE Abacus – in medium to large agencies : HERE

The PIE Abacus – in local practice networks : HERE

The PIE Abacus – in smaller 'stand alone' services : HERE

The PIE Abacus – as a research tool : HERE

The PIE Abacus – in communities of practice : HERE

The PIE Abacus – in service user-led assessments : HERE

The PIE Abacus – with services using PIEs1 : HERE 

All PIE Abacus FAQs : HERE