Councils in Scotland have long held the aspiration to have greater control over how information is requested, submitted, and ultimately, shared; through a system designed for data returns, across all of our services, with real time access for authorities to update their information and to assist with decision making across all spheres of government.
The current arrangements for providing data returns to external agencies present a number of challenges to local government in terms of volume, frequency and lack of co-ordination of reporting requirements. The COVID-19 emergency exacerbated existing challenges, particularly operational impacts associated with providing reports manually, and shone a spotlight on improvements that could be made.
To support better management of data across the public sector, the Local Government Data Platform will support the following three main functions:
- Collection and exchange of data
- Validation and enhancement of data
- Visualisation and presentation of data
These will be underpinned by a critical governance and data standards supporting strand.
While all these elements could co-exist in a single solution, given the number of existing data management solutions that are currently available, it is more likely that they will be provided as separate solutions in a data ecosystem.
The high-level design of the data platform is set out below:
- The long-term ambition would be that required returns would be automated so that selected data is directly exported from councils’ various back-office systems without additional manual handling. Current data recipients, such as Scottish Government Directorates or the Care Inspectorate, could be given permissions to access the submitted data reports relevant to them from each authority through a local government data platform. This would remove the need to submit directly.
- Ultimately, the system would enable local authorities to customise their own dashboards by selecting, for example, which information they wish to collate together, to aid decision making. The platform would be focussed on the datasets collated by local government but could draw in additional datasets as required, subject to agreement across all authorities.
- A formalised governance protocol would be put in place to handle any new data requests before they were added to the platform. This would require a clarity on the purpose of collection, discussion on the regularity, duration, etc and, very importantly, agreement on the wording and guidance for individual indicators. Additionally, the platform would also focus on ensuring that existing returns are still useful and relevant.
Phone: 07747 711310
-
Phase 1 Final Report
The final report of the first (discovery) phase of the project.
-
The Crerar Review
Report of the independent review of regulation, audit, inspection and complaints handling of public services in Scotland.
-
The Verity House Agreement
Partnership agreement between the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Scottish Government “setting out our vision for a more collaborative approach to delivering our shared priorities for the people of Scotland.”