Transparency data

Vulnerability Working Group - Notes 1st Meeting (HTML)

Published 25 October 2023

Attendees

• Firoze Salim - CDDO
• Didac Fabregas-Badosa - CDDO
• Paul Davidson - SAVVI
• Ian Manson - CDDO
• Heather Neate - CDDO
• Tara Wilson - DWP
• Michael Sowerby - CO
• Mike Thacker - Porism
• Simon Roberts - Improvement Service
• Jabeen Kamran - Cabinet Office
• Patrick Kiernan - Home Office
• David Wright - DWP
• Claire Bell - ONS
• Robert Kennaugh -DfE
• Juliet Whitworth - LGA
• Nicholas Oughtibridge - NHS
• Alex Smith - CDDO
• Cameron Walker - Improvement Service
• Kamil Faltynowski - DfE
• Krisztina Katona - Home Office
• Murat Sconul - CDDO
• Shantanu Guha - DWP

Apologies:

• Hiran Basnayake - HMRC
• Kate Cooper - LGA

Other invitees:

• Carla Taylor - MoJ
• Shona Nicol - Scottish Government
• Shaun Williams - Met Police
• Rachel Davison - DWP
• Kirti Tandel - ONS
• Keiran Millard - CDDO
• Becky Leader - DLUHC

Record of discussions

1. Chair welcome and introductions Firoze Salim - CDDO

• The Chair welcomed attendees and asked everyone to provide a quick introductory statement for the benefit of the meeting.
• The Chair provided an introduction to the role of the DSA (Data Standards Authority) in improving cross government coordination on problems around data interoperability and then to work collaboratively with experts across the public sector along with external experts to identify and agree common standards that can help tackle those problems.
• The DSA has engaged extensively with the SAVVI (Scalable Approach to Vulnerability via Interoperability) project and other government projects focused on tackling specific vulnerabilities and has established this working group to consider the problems and what can be delivered to address them.

2. Terms of Reference - Firoze Salim - CDDO

• A draft Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Working Group had been distributed prior to the meeting for discussion and further development as necessary. The purpose of the group was queried. The Chair quoted the included within the draft ToR which is ‘to bring together experts from key parts of the public sector to look into the problems around public sector data interoperability in identification and provision of support and services to vulnerable people and households and develop common solutions to address them’.
• Following a short discussion on the draft ToR, the Chair agreed that the ToR would be developed further to provide greater clarity on the purpose, cadence, scope and outputs from the group.

Problem Statement - Firoze Salim - CDDO

• An initial problem Statement was presented to the working group.

There are many types of vulnerability, such as

• poverty during a period of increased cost-of-living
• potential homelessness
• exclusion / loneliness
• families under pressure or in chaos
• children not achieving
• support needs during a civil emergency
• … and so on

The public sector, including Local Authorities often run initiatives to find and support vulnerable people; - that is, ‘early identification and smarter intervention’.

Finding and prioritising vulnerable people is often a matter of matching existing data from a number of sources. This has proven to be problematic for many reasons including

• uncertainty about lawful, ethical, transparent data re-use;
• lack of knowledge of which organisation holds what data, and its data quality;
• difficulty in engaging with data owners to make their data available;
• miss-interpretation of the precise meaning of data provided externally
• inconsistent trust and security environment to allow data to be accessed across domains

• The group discussion highlighted the complexity of the issue, many of the comments informed by the experience of inter-agency working in this area. One issue outlined was the customer perspective versus the agency perspective and the possible reluctance to self-identify as being vulnerable. Members also set out that the range of indicators for an agency to evaluate vulnerability is broad and may include simple Y/N qualifications such as a mobility blue badge, geographic location (risk of flooding) or more complex event based circumstances (prison release, hospital discharge) which may require additional qualification.
• The discussion concluded the need for a high-level definition of vulnerability but the broad problem statement as drafted was true.

3. Example Use Cases - Paul Davidson - SAVVI

• The Chair introduced the next agenda item, which was a collaborative exercise to identify “Needs”, “Risk Factors” and potential “Data Sources” for a few examples of vulnerabilities. Paul Davidson (SAVVI) talked the group through an illustrative Jamboard for the use case of flooding, as a civil contingency.
• The group were then invited to contribute their own ideas on the themes of homelessness prevention and financial hardship.This collaborative exercise was done using a Jamboard.
• The resulting output of this session clearly demonstrated the breadth of the problem, potential indicators of vulnerabilities and opportunities for different departments to provide data to support identification and early interventions to support vulnerable individuals and groups.

4. Opportunities for the working group - Firoze Salim - CDDO

• The Chair asked attendees to share information about any work that departments were doing around specific vulnerabilities to understand the current landscape and see if any lessons could be learnt.
• The Chair led a discussion with the group seeking views on the opportunities for working together from a cross-government perspective to overcome data interoperability issues around vulnerabilities..
• The Chair highlighted the value of pursuing a scalable approach to vulnerabilities, meaning that although the group could look at specific vulnerability use cases such as homelessness prevention or financial hardship, the outcomes of the working group would ideally be scalable and applicable across a range of different vulnerabilities.
• The opportunities for cross-government work identified by the group were to develop:
  • a common high-level definition of vulnerability
  • taxonomies for vulnerabilities
  • a concept model for vulnerabilities
  • an Information Governance Framework
  • Guidance relating to data security, service considerations and data matching
• The underlying basis of the commentary was a strong appetite for collaborative work on this issue.

5. AOB and Close

Closing Items

• Agreement of ToR - Based on the discussions and views of the working group, the DSA will take these comments away to review the draft ToR in preparation for a next meeting. The DSA team will also proceed with further departmental and external engagement for additional representation on this group.
• AOB - None Meeting closed

Next meeting: September 2023