What is this

A collaborative programme of work to improve data about the social sector

Why is this important - The challenge and the opportunity

We know from existing research that there are major challenges with understanding of the sector, many of which stem from having poor data. There are many reasons for this: limited investment in data infrastructure, limited data sharing, unstandardised data.  We also know there are many people who know the challenges, have solutions and want to work together to solve these problems through collaboration and collective leadership. This initiative is a coalition of the willing taking collective action, with short and long term approaches, to solve problems through improving data about the sector.

Overarching goals

• More timely, standardised, granular data in order to support the sector’s decision making about where the sector should focus effort.
• A coordinated approach for engagement with Government on sector data.
• Be a focal point for learning, expertise and collaboration on sector data.

Principles

• Focus on user needs, identifying the opportunities and issues to be addressed.
• Focus on agreeing practical actions that we can collectively take forward.
• Engage all stakeholders as equal contributors by respecting the autonomy of different organisations and working groups and the need for collaborative rather than centralised leadership.
• Work openly and share progress regularly.
• Recognise that decision making involving multiple, independent organisations and individuals is difficult and needs everyone involved to support the process.
• Aim to surface where there are people with shared aims and the energy to take collaborative action on items, rather than looking for complete consensus within all groups.
• Design governance collectively, ensuring all participants from all groups are involved in decisions regarding governance of relationship between groups and changes to these overarching principles.

Who we are

People involved

Blogs

Help us build collaborative leadership on social sector data

In July we wrote about all of the reasons why we need leadership on data in the voluntary sector, and how you could get involved. It was based on research carried out over April and May 2021 that looked at challenges and opportunities around sector data. The research showed there are major challenges to understanding the sector, many of which stem from poor data. There are a number of reasons for this: limited investment in data infrastructure, limited data sharing, and unstandardised data to name a few. Our research also showed several ways forward, including a clear need for coordination and leadership.

We know the problems, and collectively we may have the solutions, so we created an open invitation to act together. The blog served as a call to action, and happily there was a lot of interest….honestly more than we had anticipated! We‘ve spent a fair amount of time in the last six weeks talking to people individually to understand how to bring all this interest and expertise together in a meaningful way. We tried to speak to as many people as possible, but if we weren’t able to talk to you, know that we do want you involved! Our approach is to be open, and for this work to evolve with your input and ideas.

These conversations allowed us to outline some overarching goals and an initial plan based around a ‘hub and spoke’ model, which allows for expertise and engagement with different areas and data topics.

What are we trying to achieve?

We have set some overarching goals for this work, including:

• More timely, standardised, granular data in order to support the sector’s decision making about where the sector should focus effort.
• A coordinated approach for engagement with Government on sector data.
• To be a focal point for learning, expertise and collaboration on sector data.

Other goals will emerge as this work develops.

An outline for collaborating

We propose a hub and spoke model (pictured).