The children’s services data team at Wigan Council brought together funding from DLUHC’s Local Digital Collaboration Unit, programming expertise from Social Finance, and hands-
on development contributions from around a dozen other local authorities, to create a new approach to data analysis in children’s social care.

The partnership saw the potential of using free, open-source analysis tools like Python to both extend the scope of what
analysis is possible for LA analysts, and make high-powered, complex analysis available to those without access to Python in their LA. Together they learned new programming skills and developed a suite of data tools which any council can now use to
perform critical data quality work in an easier, more timely way than ever before. How did it happen, and what good is it doing?