GovWire

This guidance outlines the process which childrens services teams should follow when you develop and use data analytics tools.

Data analytics tools help you to:

• analyse large quantities of data
• draw conclusions from the data to support decision-making

Learn about data analytics

Senior leaders who are responsible for the provision of services and care should read our introduction to data analytics and the development process (PDF, 272 KB, 15 pages).

Before teams start developing tools, leaders should understand:

• the benefits and risks of using data analytics tools in childrens social care
• what responsible innovation means
• the process which teams should follow

Data practitioners supporting childrens services may also find this introduction useful, if they have not developed data analytics before.

Assess and reduce your exposure to risk

Data practitioners should use the ethics triage self-assessment tool (PDF, 209 KB, 14 pages) to:

• identify the specific risks which their project faces
• inform how they respond to or reduce those risks

Complete the ethics triage before development begins on all data analytics projects.

Get support from:

• information governance teams, for support and advice on the safe and responsible use of data
• oversight or scrutiny groups

Oversight or scrutiny groups are panels of:

• senior leaders
• child and family practitioners
• technical experts

They can challenge, advise and give feedback.

Develop your tool

Those creating data analytics tools will include:

• data and performance analysts
• information managers
• business intelligence developers

Use our guidance on developing data analytics tools (PDF, 304 KB, 39 pages) to:

• understand how to follow an agile development cycle
• get practical guidance for every step of the process

Using agile methods will mean you:

• build quickly
• test and improve what you have built in cycles

Assess and reduce risk during development

Respond to the questions in our ethics workbook (PDF, 212 KB, 12 pages) at the end of each phase of the project.

An internal or independent scrutiny group should review the responses.

This is to assess how teams are addressing ethical considerations.

Get support from information governance teams, or oversight or scrutiny groups. These are the same teams who can support on the ethics triage.

Respond to common challenges

Use our explainers document for guidance on how to respond to common challenges (PDF, 312 KB, 44 pages).

You will need to:

• engage with social care practitioners and families
• communicate transparently about what the tool does and the data it uses
• store, share and use your data effectively
• make sure data is fit for purpose
• reduce bias
• assess how well your tools are working, and how to improve them

Senior leaders must make sure there is accountability for decisions.

Commissioners and procurement officers must make sure procurement meets teams needs.

Get support and give feedback

Contactrtau@dsit.gov.ukto:

• discuss opportunities to work together
• get support on using the guidance
• give feedback