Data to Insight is not a software supplier in the traditional sense -- we're here to help local authority (LA) colleagues get work done and share it with each other. The best thing about Data to Insight is the community of analysts who are doing and sharing great work through this network.
We recognise that different LAs want different levels of engagement with our work. As such, we offer four key collaboration approaches to suit different users’ information needs.
Latest news: ...
Hear about the results of the recent survey in a free webinar for local authorities. Researchers will take you through their findings, and Alistair Herbert from Data to Insight will talk about what these mean for the design of the new centre of excellence. Booking details are below.
Imagining a Centre of Excellence
With DfE funding, we're working to design a “Centre of Excellence” - a support offer for data and digital work in Children’s Social Care.
We’re taking a sector-led approach, learning from what works and proposing to change what doesn’t. We’re starting by laying out what we think we know, and asking colleagues to challenge and improve our understanding. From there, we’ll start designing services.
The D2I Consortium
Our consortium for this project represents five organisations, all with longstanding relationships to the sector.
Survey Results Webinar
At the end of last year, the Local Government Association conducted a survey of local authority data, digital and technology leads for children’s services. The survey aimed to understand the current level of maturity and how data, digital and technology are harnessed to support outcomes for children and families. It also aimed to identify where a new Department for Education Centre of Excellence can best support authorities.
You can hear about the results of this survey in a free webinar for local authorities. Researchers will take you through their findings, and Alistair Herbert from Data to Insight will talk about what these mean for the design of the new centre of excellence. Booking details are below.
Date: 17 March 2026 | Time: 10-11am | We hope you will be able to join us.
Clear opportunities
We see huge opportunities to improve safeguarding services for children and families by improving our data and digital work. There exists a range of virtuous, and indeed vicious, cycles which we can influence to help local authorities (LAs) and their safeguarding partners work well; we need to design a support offer which recognises the interactivity of a wide range of related factors, and the real-world constraints faced by individual organisations.
We also know there’s a difference between knowing how things ought to work, and being able to make them work that way. We intend to design a Centre of Excellence with optimistic goals and pragmatic approaches. And to achieve that, we'll need the sector's help.
What we're doing
Alongside some LA-facing support for specific urgent issues, this programme’s core role is to approach a specification for a future Centre of Excellence. Over the next nine months, we will:
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Engage far and wide
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Experiment with key delivery approaches
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Evaluate evidence to inform our design work
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Design the Centre of Excellence
We’ll engage actively with as many stakeholders as possible during our work, including our full engagement paper which we published in October 2025.
Further information
Please enter your email address below to join our dedicated Centre of Excellence mailing list.
We'll be engaging far and wide very soon - watch this space for more information.
If you need to get in touch, you can email us at d2i.coe@eastsussex.gov.uk