Supporting professional development

We know digital and data professionals don't have all the skills they want. We also know that significant numbers of people doing data work in children’s services are willing to invest time in developing their skills, and we also know that many of them hold no formal qualifications in statistical or technological disciplines⁴⁷.

Data maturity surveys tell us more about this. In the LGA’s recent survey of local government data capacity and capability, we saw that 67% of respondents identified lack of skilled capacity as a barrier to developing data maturity⁴⁸.

So we think professional development is a key pillar of the Centre. But we also think that one size doesn’t fit all, and for every happy apprentice there are several more data professionals who, for a range of reasons, don’t feel they’d benefit from an apprenticeship.

We envisage skills development in the sector taking as many forms as there are career paths, and a Centre of Excellence should understand these routes and help analysts and organisations make use of them. But we don’t think that the Centre of Excellence’s role is to name a fixed set of specific learning opportunities now and insist on them. Rather, we think that this work is about articulating the sector’s needs, and helping professionals find ways to rise to the challenge of meeting them.

In some cases that will be training, in others peer support. It may involve some form of accreditation or some collaborative work to design standard requirements for specific technical roles. Whatever it involves, it must be guided by an understanding of how specific changes are expected to improve the quality of services we provide to children and families.

Further to this, we think there are some areas of specific technical expertise which aren’t feasible, or cost-effective, for all LAs to maintain internally. We know that some LAs routinely appoint contractors or consultants to support with work ranging from system implementations to report writing to statutory data returns. We’ve also seen several projects across our consortium where key technical resources within our organisations supported LA officers with tasks outside their typical technical remit. Understanding where skills can develop inside LA teams, and where external support is more effective, is something a Centre of Excellence can help with. This could extend to maintaining central specialist resource, or signposting to external specialists.

Focus areas for the Centre of Excellence:

• Signposting learning opportunities which meet real needs

• Developing provision to meet critical sector needs (both training and specialist capacity)

• Establishing professional standards for the sector

⁴⁷ The Social Finance / Data to Insight tailored apprenticeship has enrolled over 100 learners from core roles which we estimate total around 700 colleagues nationally at any one time. That’s a significant proportion of a workforce which is willing to commit to a sustained learning effort to develop better skills for their work.

⁴⁸ https://www.local.gov.uk/publications/local-government-data-capacity-and-capability-survey-local-authorities-october

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