The Digital Strategy that was launched in 2021 recognises that the effective and efficient use of data can be the key aspect to building an analytical driven council which can make informed decisions.
A review identified issues and challenges that existed such as data silos, multiple fragment data pipelines and non-standard information reporting structure. It also brought out other issues like, data quality, governance and analyst capacity. The review also identified a potential roadmap for implementing Power BI to interrogate data as defined by best practice to accumulate the data from the various silos in the organisation on cloud, create golden records and single sources of truth, and visual demonstration of the data in Power BI.

It recommended four priority areas for implementation:
Data Storage and Infrastructure
Data Quality Improvement
Single Person View
Data Ownership, Storage & Retention

A suggested roadmap has been developed to achieve the desired outcomes based on five phases: Fix the basics; Lay the groundwork; Define (policies and data storage/use); Modernise; Transform with a menu of options for implementation.

Alongside the work that was undertaken to review and map out a long term transformation project around data, the work of the existing performance and data team has been subject to review. Recognising the need for new approaches and transformation, a budget proposal was put forward in 2022 for a £200,000 saving from the overall cost to the City Council of the performance function. Elements of this saving were achieved through not filling vacant posts and a proposed restructure was consulted on in Spring 2024. It became apparent that with the significant demands on the team and lack of time available to automate processes and maximise the use of power BI, coupled with the need to invest in the longer term, the delivery of the budget saving and associated restructure was not possible. 

Technical Considerations

It should be noted that the Council stores a huge amount of data, we currently have capacity to resiliently store 1PB (petabyte) of data on our storage area network.  To give you an idea 1PB is the equivalent of 1 million gigabytes, 20 million tall filling cabinets or 500 billion pages of standard print text.  The point is, we have a huge amount of data which is arguably our biggest asset and no owner or strategy to define how we should manage, use, standardise or store it.  Whilst much of the data is structured i.e. residing in an indexed database to allow for quick easy access, much of it is not e.g. P:.

The Council is currently reviewing its options for migrating where possible and cost effective to the Cloud.  Work has been undertaken to explore options such as Microsoft Azure and AWS (Amazon Web Services) for data warehousing.
Part of the new Digital Strategy will set out the need to simplify and rationalise our application landscape.  Whilst considerable efforts have already been made this space we need to go further.  The implementation of SAP will further decrease our applications and with the introduction of a CRM we can go further again.  By consolidating down to two core applications alongside more specialist case management systems such as LiquidLogic we’ll be able to break down data silos and consolidate our data like never before.  However this does need to be combined with a master data management approach.

Progress to date

Priority was given to implementing a major project to address the data quality issues within Adult Social Care. The Data Systems Transformation and Quality Improvement Project was approved by Cabinet in April 2024, with a £974,000 investment over 3 years in a system update of Liquidlogic for Adult Social Care (LAS) and ContrOCC, and the introduction of an integrated reporting system. This meant the wider data strategy and transformation programme has not progressed.

In relation to the performance team, the restructure was not implemented due to the conflicting need to understand the scale of the longer term investment required and the type of skills that would be needed to deliver it, therefore it did not make sense to reduce the size of the team and lose experienced staff simply to deliver a budget saving at that time, even though the intention was to introduce more efficient ways of working and reduce the amount of work to fit within  the financial envelope.  It should be noted that this will result in a budget pressure of £100k in 2024/25. 

The team has made progress with introducing new ways of working with the aim of managing demand to prioritise statutory work and corporate priorities and reduce the amount of ad hoc request that come in from directorates.  Further work is required to identify the core functions that the corporate performance team should undertake and where a service requires additional support there should be a contribution from that directorate’s budget. This does currently operate through SLAs, however the approach needs modernising to ensure that a directorate pays for a service rather than an individual person to maximise flexibility within the team.

The performance team has also undertaken a complete overhaul of the corporate and operational performance measures following the adoption of a new corporate strategy by the council in April 2024.  They have also been developing the use of power BI as capacity has allowed, although progress has been slow due to day-to-day demands.

Requirements for interim role

The previous report needs to be revisited to identify whether the City Council believes that a long term investment in implementing a wholesale transformation of the way we use and store data is the right thing to do at this point in time (it should  be noted that this doesn’t mean accepting the recommendations, but coming to a view as to whether any of the recommendations are right “in principle” and how we want to move forward).  If we wish to proceed an options appraisal or business case would be required for taking forward the data strategy and transformation work, to identify the amount of investment required, the pace at which we want to proceed and the overall timescales, the options for phasing the work, and the benefits (both financial and qualitative) that would be realised.  It is unlikely that we would have all the capacity or expertise internally so consideration would need to be given to how we source the appropriate support to take it forward, potentially requesting transformation funding.

Recognising that it will take some time to do the above to arrive at a plan for the longer term, the implementation of PowerBI needs to be expedited to enable self service and automation of reports.  A business case should be developed to identify the amount and type of resource required to make progress using existing technology and systems to maximise our ability to make best use of what we already have. This is likely to require both data technicians and IT skills to undertake some quick sprints over the next year.

Further work is required to re-set the work of the corporate performance team.  There is a need to determine roles, responsibilities, and approach to ensure it is fit for purpose and delivering the needs of the organisation.  This will include identifying the core functions that the team should undertake and those where a service requires additional support that should be funded separately via a contribution from that directorate’s budget. This should be on the basis of a directorate paying for a service rather than an individual person to maximise flexibility within the team. 

Experience and Skills required

Experience of developing and delivering data strategies for local authorities
Ability to advise on and lead a programme to implement solutions for:
Data Storage and Infrastructure
Data Quality Improvement
Single Person View
Data Ownership, Storage & Retention
Knowledge of PowerBI and its application in consolidating, automating and reporting data
Knowledge of the statutory requirements for local authority data management and reporting
Proven experience in leading and driving organisational change
Ability to engage with a wide range of stakeholders and develop collaborative solutions to challenges