Quality¶
We must also recognise significant variance in the quality of data and digital work in children’s services. Through Data to Insight’s advisory services to LAs15, we have engaged with LA colleagues who have taught us things we didn’t know about legislation or analytical practice. We have also engaged with LA colleagues who didn’t know why they were looking at the statistics they were charged with reporting to service leaders.
Quality, in the sense we discuss it here, comprises three key elements:
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Analysis accuracy and competence, including data quality
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Technology access and understanding
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Collaborating to identify good practice
It might go without saying that no amount of strategic leadership can effectively leverage low quality data outputs. Similarly, the best piece of analysis imaginable would be of little value if proposed by a low-status analyst to a service which lacked respect for its analytical function. Where quality is high, this typically helps to build the status and value of the analytical function, but quality alone is not always sufficient to deliver value.
15 Many of these are informal, but a formal example can be found here