This report was written by an independent evaluator, Simon Gallacher, as part of a Nuffield-funded project.
In 2019, Coram published a report based on the pilot work utilising existing information concerning children in local authority social care (SC) to develop a digital tool that would allow professionals to visually evaluate children’s journeys through the various SC and related services.1 The prototype was developed collaboratively with Kent County Council, and a new phase of piloting the tool is being taken forward to include Oxfordshire and East Sussex County Councils. The Nuffield Foundation funded this project, and as part of the grant conditions, an appropriately-scaled evaluation of the tool has been undertaken. This report sets out those evaluative findings, looking at both the technical and operational elements of its use in practice and offers a small perspective on the place of the tool in the wider data debate.
Summary
A small scale pilot project developed a data visualisation tool that could illustrate in a dynamic way how young people moved (or did not) through social care pathways. Considerable challenges were overcome in terms of data quality, privacy, and structure to develop this tool, requiring notable customisation for each of the three local authorities involved in the pilot. The tool may not be a solution in itself for all local authorities, but it has demonstrated the art of the possible. Perhaps more importantly, it has stimulated interest and discussion in the local authority data community about other and different ways of using data to improve outcomes for children and young people.