ised and relevant exchanges, promoting improvements in practice at a regional level. 11 Future improvements to children’s social care data and the Dashboard This is the first iteration of the Dashboard. It is based on data that is currently available, considered to meet standards of robustness and consistency, and is published at local authority level. It is our intention to continue to improve it over time. To play that role and support learning, we know that the Dashboard must evolve in 3 key ways: • Data must be available more frequently (without creating undue burden on those who curate and provide it). • We want to develop more outcome-focused data to more holistically measure the outcomes and enablers in the National Framework. • We want to allow users to more fully explore the characteristics of the available data and ensure that ease of use of the dashboard remains high. Next steps Following the publication of the Dashboard in 2024 (where we will launch a public Dashboard), the Department will: • Work with a group of local authorities to develop and test new ways of moving pre- agreed data, in a timely way, between local authorities and the Department. Depending on what we learn from that early group, we then anticipate developing a restricted access version of the Dashboard (referred to as the ‘private Dashboard’), using this more timely data. Together with these LAs, we will be able to understand the end-to-end data quality and burdens trade-offs between regular/fast data feeds and the current annual bulk data collections. That learning, alongside user experience, understanding how the Dashboard is used, and evaluating the initial indicators, will inform how the Dashboard(s) best evolve to maximise responsible use of what is a complex suite of data. • Continue