Briefly describe the initiative/ project/service; please include your aims and objectives

Like many local authorities before 2020, we faced fragmented data sources and slow integration processes that hindered automation and data-driven decision-making. With over 400 systems in use, achieving a single version of the truth was tricky to get to. Manual reporting dominated, creating inefficiencies and limiting our ability to respond quickly to emerging challenges.

However, we recognised the need for transformation: a secure, centralised data foundation that could power insight, automation, and cross-service collaboration while protecting personal information. Building on early database initiatives, we accelerated development to create a governed platform that links person, household, property, and workforce data usingunique identifiers. This “bedrock” now houses many dataflows underpinning emergency response, housing safety, financial resilience, and workforce planning.

Our approach delivers:

• Reusable “one-view” products that provide holistic perspectives for targeted support and inspection readiness.
• Daily refresh which underpins automation capabilities.
• Embedded Information Governance, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and auditable access.
• Automation and low-code analytics, reducing manual effort and enabling advanced insight.
• Scalability and portability, aligned with SAVVI principles and future-ready architecture.

This initiative demonstrates how secure information sharing can transform services while respecting data minimisation and privacy. It has cut manual effort, improved assurance, and enabled proactive interventions including millions of pounds secured for residents during the cost-of-living crisis.

Aims and Objectives

• Establish a single, secure data store integrating multiple systems to deliver a consistent, auditable source of truth.
• Enable lawful information sharing via unique identifier-based matching, supporting emergency response, vulnerability management, and regulatory reporting.
• Reduce manual reporting through automation and low-code analytics, accelerating insight delivery and improving data quality.
• Deliver reusable “one-view” products (e.g., tenants, households, workforce) for holistic decision-making and inspection readiness.
• Support housing oversight and compliance with safety and equality standards.
• Drive innovation in analytics and automation, empowering advanced insight rather than manual manipulation.
• Align with SAVVI principles and IG data minimisation; prepare for next-generation architecture without vendor lock-in.
• Strengthen statutory and regulatory compliance through improved data capture, cleansing, and reporting processes.

And above all align to our Progress with Unity missions of supporting our residents, by having this relentless focus on data and insight we are equipping our organisation with the tools to ensure we are creating fair opportunities and making our towns and neighbourhoods flourish.

What are the key achievements?

We set out to create an accurate, secure, and easily accessible single version of the truth. To achieve this, we replaced fragmented, manual reporting with an integrated data ecosystem that drives insight, automation, and better outcomes for residents. With more than 400 disparate systems, the lack of cohesion slowed decision making and created risks in statutory reporting. We changed that—without taking our foot off business as usual.

1. Building the Bedrock

We introduced a centralised data store to bring information together from multiple systems, underpinned by unique identifier data matching. This became the cornerstone of our emergency response capability, enabling rapid identification of vulnerable residents during civil contingencies. Starting with a strong foundation meant zero duplication and full compliance with Information Governance (IG) principles.

2. Driving Innovation and Collaboration

To accelerate insight delivery, we embedded low code analytics: Alteryx, Power BI, and Power Automate. Manual reporting gave way to automated, repeatable processes. We established a clear analytics approach within the Performance & Insight Unit, fostering collaboration and best practice across services

3. Expanding Impact and Influence

Positioning us as a key contributor to SAVVI through our Emergency Response project. By aligning to open, interoperable standards, we improved consistency, reuse, and trust – locally and nationally.

4. Preparing for the Future

With a mature data model in place, we are scaling our ambitions using Microsoft Fabric to strengthen governance, scalability, and interoperability. This roadmap ensures sustainability, alignment with emerging standards, and continuous improvement.

We now operate a stable, secure, integrated data platform that delivers timely, accurate insights and, most importantly, improves lives: supporting residents in crisis, informing housing strategies, strengthening statutory assurance, and shaping national policy.

Housing Insight, Reporting & Inspection Readiness

• Fragmented data across systems; need a governed, holistic household view for landlord duties and inspection readiness.
• Three reusable “one view” products—Tenant Oversight, Vulnerable Tenant Oversight (with IG flags), Tenant Profile

Dashboard; daily refresh; audited access.

• Outcomes & Impact: Faster risk identification, prioritised works, robust equality impact assessments, actionable policy options; stronger compliance readiness; national interest via SAVVI alignment.
• Eliminated manual collation; near real time operations; lawful bases, access logging, role based controls; strict data minimisation.

Income Maximisation (Financial Resilience)

• Cost of living pressures; need to identify low financial resilience and unclaimed benefits across multiple datasets.
• Single governed view refreshed daily; proactive outreach guided by risk/eligibility; SAVVI principles applied to vulnerability.
• Outcomes & Impact: 8,557 awards (>£14m in one year; >£40m lifetime estimate); new team formed from existing resources;
• policy and support targeting improved.
• Automation replaces manual matching; substantial time saved; auditable, reusable pipelines; lawful bases and minimisation embedded.

HR Reporting Dashboards

• Spreadsheets limited timely workforce insight and equality assurance.
• Migrated HR datasets to near real time governed dashboards; modular/reusable pipelines; linked with open data for area focused recruitment.
• Outcomes & Impact: A single source of truth; visibility of team level ageing, retention/sickness patterns, disparities; shapes annual workforce/equality/diversity reporting; targeted recruitment; strengthened statutory assurance; avoided >£40k external costs.
• Automation removed manual processes; ownership, validation rules, and refresh schedules embedded for trust and compliance.

Adult Social Care – Risk Review Tool

• Managers needed timely assurance that care packages remain safe and person centred; legacy reports were manual, slow, and hard to action.
• Centralised Adult Social Care data in a governed warehouse; daily refreshed prioritisation by risk and overdue status.
• Outcomes & Impact: Overdue reviews reduced to zero; moved from regional outlier to leading performance; managers now work proactively with stronger safety oversight—freeing time for care and improving outcomes.
• Reduced manual checks; clear audit trail; minimisation and access controls built in; reusable components extended to wider ASC assurance.

This delivers timely, up to date information that helps:

• Services make better decisions
• Resident insight via people/addresses to be identified and integrated quickly and safely.

Each project creates a secure, governed database view using data we already hold with lawful bases, role based access, audited use, clear retention, and reusable pattern ensuring consistency, trust, and long term value.

How Innovative is your initiative?

We reimagined information sharing by building a governed, reusable “bedrock”: a secure data platform that links person, household, property and workforce data through identifier?based matching. Instead of standing up multiple spreadsheets and one?off datasets for each crisis or statutory need, we start from the same trusted foundation, so new products launch in days —not months—while data minimisation and lawful bases are applied from design.

• Bedrock first model (not project by project data wrangling)

We created reusable “one view” products (tenants, households, workforce) that are refreshed daily and permissioned by role.

This flips the norm—teams don’t rebuild pipelines; they plug into the same governed views.

• SAVVI aligned, portable processes

We adopted the SAVVI playbook and data thinking so our methods are documented, auditable, and reusable by other authorities. It’s innovation that travels not just tools, but the process and governance patterns since we started our engagement in 2022.

• IG by design (privacy and pace together)

Because much of the data was collected for other purposes, we completed impact assessments, set explicit legal gateways, minimised fields, and logged access. This unlocks speed (near real time insights) without compromising privacy.

• Low code acceleration with engineered governance

We reduced manual reporting through low code analytics and automation, shifting analysts from cleansing to decision ready insight. Pipelines are modular and auditable, so updates don’t break compliance.

• Future ready and vendor neutral

The architecture is designed to scale and interoperate (ready for modern warehousing/fabric patterns) without locking us into a single stack. Where innovation shows real world impact

• Emergency response & vulnerability management

The bedrock enabled rapid, compliant resident identification for civil contingencies, with national recognition. That same pattern now drives housing safety—from damp/mould and gas servicing prioritisation to inspection ready oversight proving reuse across domains.

• Financial resilience at scale

By integrating assessments, collections and welfare signals into one governed view, we moved from reactive to proactive outreach—securing 8,557 awards (>£14m one year; >£40m lifetime estimate) and establishing a new team at no extra cost.This is innovation in targeting and delivery, not just reporting.

• HR intelligence as a transformation tool

Migrating HR to the bedrock replaced spreadsheets with near real time, governed dashboards, revealing ageing, retention/sickness patterns, and disparities that now shape workforce, equality and diversity reporting. We also combined HR with open data for area focused recruitment, avoiding >£40k in external costs—evidence that our modular pipelines are innovative and economical.

How we pushed boundaries:

• From “can’t share” to “share safely”

We challenged the status quo that sensitive data couldn’t be mobilised quickly. By pairing IG officers with analysts from day one, we proved that privacy preserving sharing is not only possible—it’s faster and more reliable than ad hoc workarounds.

• From one off builds to reusable patterns

We institutionalised reusability—identifier matching, privacy controls, refresh schedules, quality rules—so every new use case stands on the same shoulders.

• From manual effort to automated assurance

Daily refresh, validation rules and transparent auditing mean leaders trust the numbers, and teams focus on outcomes, not reconciliation.

Our initiative secures sensitive information while increasing its value. It demonstrates effective information sharing that is lawful, auditable, and minimised by design, and it scales across domains—emergency response, housing, financial support,

HR and adults social care services. The model is replicable (SAVVI aligned), cost effective (significant savings and avoided spend), and future proof, showing how governed interoperability can deliver better outcomes, faster, without compromising security or privacy.

What are the key learning points?

Our foundational data approach evolved iteratively and is replicable for any local authority. The following lessons capture what

enabled adoption at pace, safeguarded privacy, and turned insight into measurable outcomes.

1. Governance by Design enables speed and trust

• Start with IG: Embed data minimisation, clear lawful bases, and privacy notices upfront; update public notices (e.g., council tax communications) to maintain transparency.
• Audit as a feature: Treat access logging, role based permissions, and refresh schedules as part of the product, not an afterthought.
• Challenge constructively: When told data “can’t be used,” work with GDPR officers and Legal to identify safe, lawful pathways. Persistence plus governance unlocks impact.

 

2. Build reusable products, not one off reports

• Reusable patterns: Create standard identifier matching, quality rules, and refresh cadences that are reused across domains (housing, HR, welfare, ASC).
• No more midnight cobbling: Design modular pipelines to avoid out of hours “last minute analysis”; ensure live, up to date views with only the necessary fields.

 

3. Design with users (service + ops + IG)

• Co design sprints: Include responders, housing officers, HR, analysts, IG in short design cycles; keep products intuitive and action oriented.
• Interface matters: Build simple, responder friendly views that surface decisions (e.g., priority flags, risk indicators) instead of raw data tables.

 

4. Make ownership, quality, and metadata explicit

• Assign product owners: Each “one view” should have a named lead for data quality, cadence, and change control.
• Codify standards: Agree a core metadata schema (person, property, household identifiers; timestamps; provenance) and adopt UPRN/consistent keys to reduce reconciliation effort.
• Data quality playbook: Document validation rules, exception handling, and remediation steps so teams fix issues once and permanently.

 

5. Scale with flexible tooling, not a single stack

• Tooling balance: Enable low code automation for speed, and (where permitted) open source methods for advanced linkage —remove blockers early.
• Vendor neutral design: Keep architecture future ready and interoperable; avoid patterns that create lock in.

 

6. Prioritise outcomes and measurable value

• Define success upfront: Tie each product to clear outcome metrics (e.g., awards secured, safety interventions completed, inspection readiness achieved, reporting assurance).
• Quantify savings: Track time saved, avoided external costs (e.g., >£40k for HR insight), and financial recognition (e.g., £12.5m).

 

7. People and cadence make the difference

• Core team rhythm: A stable project team with regular check ins, clear roles, and owned actions accelerates delivery.
• Shared goals: Maintain mutual support and a common outcome focus; this culture sustains momentum across services.

 

Key learning points include:

• Do not be afraid to challenge when people tell you cannot use data to achieve your objectives. You just need to find the ways and means to do so with the support of your GDPR officers and Legal teams, do not give up, you will find a way.
• IG – principles of data minimisation need to be a focus.

The people make all the difference!

• Clear roles and responsibilities.
• Regular communication and clear actions for every project team member.
• Clear deliverables.
• Mutual support and a sense of common goal.

Additional Comments

This is a project that cover the Performance and Insight Unit and is the work of a number of people and also includes our amazing database e-administrator and their team.