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D2I news for April: Outcomes, Pressures, Quarters...

Dear Data to Insight colleagues –

 

Please find below another bundle of news, within which I hope you’ll find something of interest. As always, if you want to talk about this stuff, or have ideas for how we can do useful things – or how you’d like to get involved – then reply to this email and let us know what you’re thinking about.

 

(Please note that some links below will only work for LA employees).

 

  1. ChAT and Benchmarking Tool Outcomes for CIN including CLA

  2. RIIA Quarterly Dataset – change to workforce establishment measure definition for Q1 data

  3. Early Help Quarterly Dataset – Q3 national analysis and Q4 workshop

  4. Social Work Workforce dashboard

  5. Safeguarding Pressures 9 data collection

  6. Upcoming events

    1. Early Help data partnership workshops

    2. RIIA dataset reflective workshops

    3. Next open house

    4. Python workshops

  7. Credits

 

 

  1. ChAT and Benchmarking Tool  Outcomes for CIN including CLA

 

Yesterday DfE published their "Outcomes for Children in Need, including Children Looked After" dataset, and we’ve updated the Benchmarking Tool accordingly, and pulled these datasets into a new version of the ChAT alongside some other small changes.

 

One key change worth highlighting in ChAT is the addition of a new placement type to our standard list: “nn) Regulated supported accommodation”. This is not currently present in the Ofsted ILACS guidance, but corresponds to a new placement type in the SSDA903 specifiction. We expect Ofsted to update their guidance later this year, but we’re introducing this code now as we know some LAs want to include this placement type in their Annex A outputs (as this maps to an existing placement type grouping, LAs can opt either to use this now, or continue to use options from the current ILACS specification until the Ofsted guidance is officially updated. Ofsted are aware of what we’ve done here, and will be happy to work with whichever option LAs choose).


  • (3.44) Added Outcomes for CIN including CLA data 2023

  • (3.44) Added latest inspection data (15/04/2024)

  • (3.43) Added SW Workforce 2023 return


  • (8.4) Added Outcomes for CIN including CLA 2020-21 as per DfE data release

  • (8.4) Added CLA placement type nn) K3: Regulated Supported Accommodation mapped to f) residential accomodation reflecting changes to the 24/25 CLA return

  • (8.4) Fixed issue with 29 Feb not appearing in quarter lookup

  • (8.4) Fixed issue with 4+ EH records not counting properly

  • (8.4) Added lookups

  • (8.4) Updated Ofsted inspection outcomes in CustomGroup tab


As always, if you spot anything amiss, or have ideas for how to further improve this or any of our tools, please do get in touch.


We will also be looking to push the 2022-23 benchmarking data into our various statutory return data tools over the next few days, so if you use any of those tools, please look out for a mini-update newsletter to be alerted when that happens.



2. RIIA Quarterly Dataset - change to workforce establishment measure definition for Q1 data

 

We’ve updated the RIIA Quarterly Collection Tool to reflect a changed definition for one measure – and we’ve asked regional data leads to also amend any regional collection processes or guidance.

 

This is the “SW Establishment” measure. The definition was previously "Number of case-holding social workers (FTE) in the service at the end of the previous period, including agency staff but not including vacancies." From Q1 2024-25 (which, being a workforce measure, you’ll be reporting at the end of Q2), the definition will be: "Number of case-holding social workers (FTE) in the service at the end of the previous period, not including agency staff and not including vacancies."

 

This change is based on feedback from several LAs asking us to align with the national workforce census. We’ll amend the benchmarking tool in line with this so that things like the agency rate calculation still work with the new definition.

 

 

  • Amended guidance on SW Establishment measure, and calculation of agency rate %


Finally on the RIIA dataset, we’re going to try running quarterly reflection workshops for LA colleagues on the model of our Early Help workshops, discussed below. The first of these will be Wednesday 19th June 12:30 – 14:00 – please email for an invitation.

 


3. Early Help Quarterly Dataset – Q3 national analysis and Q4 workshop

  

LAs who contribute to our separate Early Help quarterly benchmarking dataset can now access Q3 data in the Early Help Benchmarking Tool.

 

 

  • Q3 data added & hard coded references updated


We’ve started running workshops on Teams to reflect on the collection. The first session took place on 13th March 2024, and we shared some national analysis to kickstart discussion which we’re also now sharing via our website. We hope that sharing some of this work will help encourage more LAs to contribute to the benchmarking exercise, and as such the sessions are open to LA colleagues whether or not their LA currently contributes to the collection.


The next workshop will be Wednesday 12th June 12:30 – 14:00. This collection is open to any LA, and we’re collecting data for 2023-24 Q4 right now with a deadline of mid-May. We’re also working to ensure that everyone working at a participating LA has direct access to the tool, but if you need to add more members you can do so by emailing us for help.

  


4. Social Work Workforce dashboard

 

 

Colleagues at the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) have produced a very useful dashboard presenting data from the national Social Work Workforce Census. This includes data for the whole country and filters for every region and LA, so it’s potentially of interest to colleagues outside the London region. To access it, you can use this direct link, and we’ve also create a page for it in the D2I toolkit, to help you find it in future.

 

This tool is maintained by LIIA, and you can find a contact link on the front page of the dashboard should you need to get in touch for any reason. Many thanks to LIIA colleagues for sharing this.

 

 

5. Safeguarding Pressures 9 data collection

 

This year we’ll be supporting ADCS with their “Safeguarding Pressures” report. We don’t yet have a finalised data request template to share with you, but wanted to make you aware as early as possible that this is coming.

 

Following the model of previous collections, ADCS will circulate a request for both a data return and a survey response, with the data return to be completed after your LA signs off its CIN Census return (to avoid disparities in figures published by ADCS and DFE respectively). This will be very similar to the return for Safeguarding Pressures 8, with only minor changes to the data request.

 

 

6. Upcoming events


  • Early Help data partnership reflective workshops (12th June 12:30 – 14:00)

RIIA dataset reflective workshops(19th June 12:30 – 14:00)

  • D2I open house / core tools workshops – email John for an invitation to either (Next open house: Wednesday 15th May at 13:00)

  • Python workshops – email Will for an invitation(Running weekly on Thursday and Friday afternoons) 


As mentioned above, we're running quarterly workshops to reflect on the early help collection, and separately on the RIIA quarterly dataset. Please drop us an email if you’d like to attend.


Our “open house” meeting is a regular chance to drop in on a D2I team meeting where we share what we’re working on and talk about how best to help with data work. We try to cover a mix of “technical” and other work. We don’t yet have an agenda for the March session, so if you have particular requests, do let us know.


And separately, Will continues to run Python drop-in workshops on Thursday and Friday afternoons, and will be starting another “Python for absolute beginners” course around the middle of May. You can register your interest in future beginners' courses here: Technical workshops | Data to Insight

 


7. Credits


Credit for recent improvements to our data tools and project work is due to colleagues in: 


Blackpool

East Riding of Yorkshire

North Yorkshire

London Councils

East Sussex

Bracknell Forest

Brent

Middlesborough

Plymouth

Wandsworth

Enfield

Newcastle

Yorkshire & Humber

ADCS

Warrington

Department for Education


That’s it! If you have any comments, queries or ideas that you want to share, just let us know.

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