Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Accepted
The Department does not yet have the data it needs to understand the impact of...
Recommendation
The Department does not yet have the data it needs to understand the impact of the innovation programme. Systems that provide high quality information to everyone involved can contribute to a culture of evaluation and an understanding of 6 Evaluating innovation projects in children’s social care what is working. Lack of data has proved a challenge for many Innovation Programme projects. Furthermore the small scale of projects within the Innovation Programme risks creating statistical challenges understanding the impacts of these schemes on particular minority groups. The Department needs to balance support for local authorities collecting the information they need locally, with considerations for what is required nationally to understand the effectiveness of these schemes across population groups. More widely, the Department concedes there is not currently a shared view on what data needs to be collected across the children’s social care sector. The Department reports it has work underway in response to recommendations around data raised by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. Recommendation: The Department should set out the standards it expects for local data collection, and make clear the benefits for local authorities of collecting good quality data. The Department should also use its new outcomes framework to shape its own data collection strategy.
Government Response Summary
The government agreed and will publish a Children’s Social Care (CSC) data strategy by the end of 2023, developed with local authorities and sector experts, to improve data collection, transparency, and use for better outcomes.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. includes the commitment to publish a Children’s Social care (CSC) data strategy. This will be developed with local authorities and sector experts for publication by the end of 2023. The vision for this strategy is that timely, meaningful, proportionate CSC data are efficiently collected and used to develop effective policies and deliver high quality services to achieve good outcomes for children and families. Reducing data burdens on local authorities remains a priority. To do this, the department needs to understand the current data burden as well as setting out the key information the department needs to collect. To deliver this, the strategy will outline what data are collected, how and why. It will explain the aims of supporting sector learning through increased data transparency and data understanding; reducing data burden; and transforming use of data to deliver better outcomes for children and families. By improving the quality, and transparency of the data collected, the department will have a stronger evidence base to improve policy design and evaluation, giving a better understanding of the impact of policies, and the short and longer-term outcomes for children and families. More timely data will also enable quicker identification and resolution of sector wide or local authority specific issues. By sharing local authority data more widely, the department hopes to embed a culture of learning and evaluation, to help everyone improve their practice. unique downloads a month. It has also influenced schools across the country, in particular with its evidence review of adolescent mental health and school-based interventions. 5.5 The Early Intervention Foundation and What Works for Children's Social Care recently merged. The new merged organisation, operating initially under the working name of What Works for Early Intervention and Children’s Social Care (WWEICSC), will make use of its collective expertise. The department expects it to use this opportunity to improve further the reach of its valuable work.