Data & the voluntary sector

1. Data & the voluntary sector Tracey Gyateng, NPC. Twitter: @tgyateng London, September2014 NPC - title of the document (can be changed under view/header and footer. Add date here if needed.

2. Data- Big/open/admin…… • Definitions • Why is it relevant to me? • What are the challenges? • How can we make more use of data? • Questions? NPC - title of the document (can be changed under view/header and footer. Add date here if needed.

3. What’s in a name? OPEN Surveyse.g Health Survey for England 360 degree giving DfE school performance tables Twitter feeds LINKED DATA GP prescription Police National Computer database SHARED DATA MoJ Customer loyalty card information DWP PRIVACY

4. What’s in a name? OPEN Surveyse.g Health Survey for England 360 degree giving DfE school performance tables Twitter feeds YOUR OWN DATA LINKED DATA GP prescription Police National Computer database SHARED DATA MoJ Customer loyalty card information DWP PRIVACY

5. What's New? Why the hype? Data: The new oil?

6. Data Zeitgeist Big push from UK government to be seen as world leaders • Open Data White Paper/ Shakespeare review • Open Data Institute • Open Government Partnership • Data sharing initiative led by Cabinet Office & Involve- datasharing.org.uk • International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) • Increased development of tools and interactive infographicse.g JRF Data, Shelter Housing Databank • 360 degree giving (Indigo Trust, Nesta, Nominet Trust) • Nesta Open Data Challenge Series • ESRC Big Data network- creating research centres • Administrative Data; Local Government; Business; Third Sector Research Centre • ESRC/TSRC/NCVO/RSS- data use & needs of voluntary sector

7. WhY is Data relevant to charities? (1/3) To understand need/issues better e.g Diabetes Source: http://openhealthdata.cdehub.org/

8. WhY is Data relevant to charities? (2/3) To improve operational effectiveness in service delivery or support functions • Birmingham Library using data from social media to understand how people interact with the library • National Biodiversity Network Gateway- an open data repository for wildlife data https://data.nbn.org.uk/e.g Pond Conservation Trust

9. WhY is Data relevant to charities? (3/3) To improve understanding of results and impact e.g. Justice Data Lab Provider organisation Individual level data • Aggregated data return MoJ Matching and analysis Source: http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab

10. Specific report – Blue Sky • Results taken from Ministry of Justice Justice Data Lab statistics: October 2013 • Short term, full-time employment contracts. Aims to move them into full-time employment elsewhere. • 72 offender records for which re-offending data was available could be matched to offenders with similar characteristics • A reduction in re-offending between 1 and 23 percentage points. This reduction is statistically significant

11. barriers to using external data? Supply Demand Availability Datasets are not open, or there is no process for requesting data (eg, for sensitive data). Awareness Unaware that data is available. Capacity Do not have the time or money to invest in data. Capability Do not recognise the potential of data, or have a vision of what could be achieved with it. Do not have the skills to analyse data or understand the results. Access Cannot reliably get access to available data. Do not understand the datasets they access. Desire Data can be disruptive: some may not want to risk negative results. Incentives There are few incentives to overcome the barriers to accessing and using data.

12. How do we make more use of data? (1/2) Supply • Engage with initiatives relating to opening data both within and outside the sector • Government needs to extend beyond open data, to allowing access to sensitive data while complying with confidentiality requirements. Demand • Create a culture that supports and even encourages attempts to use data to better understand how charities operate • Funders and commissioners must take steps to incentivise use of data • More case studies needed to raise awareness of how open data is useful

13. How do we make more use of data? (2/2) • Charity sector needs to develop and attract more analytical skills to enable charities to use the data available • Use free resources to help increase data skills (Massive Open Online Courses- MOOCs), such as the Open Knowledge Foundation’s school of data and statistics and Khan Academy or data analysis courses taught by academics e.g. Coursera • Charities can recruit volunteer data analysts or IT specialists e.g. DataKind, Random Hacks of Kindness, Pro Bono Economics, Pro Bono Operational Research, NCVO and Govt statisticians • Active community of data and IT specialists who recognise the skills shortage esp within the non-profit sector and who are keen to build tools to make it easier e.g. NominetTrust, Data Unity, Mastodon C.

14. Questions for you • DO YOU THINK YOU ARE MAKING THE MOST USE OF YOUR DATA? • PLEASE SHARE HOW YOU ARE USING IT • WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS FOR YOU INUSING DATA? • HOW DO WE SUPPORT THE SECTOR TO BECOME MORE ENGAGED WITH USING DATA? • HOW CAN YOU USE THE EXTERNAL DATASETS DESCRIBED TODAY? • HOW CAN YOU SHARE THE RESULTS OF YOUR DATA ANALYSIS?

15. Closing Thoughts • Open/Big data is exciting (I would say that!) • Data is incredibly powerful to: • Understand need • Improve operations/service delivery • Evaluate & measure impact • More sharing of HOW data is being used is needed • But before we get carried away- YOUR DATA/Small data IS KEY Tracey.Gyateng@thinknpc.org www.NPCDataLabs.org Twitter: @tgyateng

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