Supporting Families Data Platform for Local and Regional Government

A centralised data, reporting and insights platform to increase a council’s ability to deliver the Supporting Families programme, and in return, help more families, evidence outcomes, and secure more funding.

The Supporting Families Data Platform is a robust and reliable data platform that empowers local councils with the insight needed to identify families in need and provide the right support at the right time.

What is the Supporting Families Data Platform?

The Supporting Families Data Platform is a robust and reliable data platform that empowers local authorities with powerful insight – enabling them to easily identify the new criteria for the Supporting Families initiative, so they can gain greater funding for families in need.

Supporting Families is a government initiative (previously called Troubled Families) designed to build the resilience of vulnerable families and drive systematic change, with the aim of each area having joined-up and efficient local services that can identify families in need and provide the right support at the right time.

The programme has changed its focus, expanding the criteria from 6 to 10, as well as changing the proof points, which when combined with government investment, provides an opportunity to look at the costs and benefits of an automated approach.

In our experience working with local councils and regional government, we’ve found that many are reliant on manual processes, using spreadsheets to store and process data, which leaves them with limited insights and exploratory analytical capabilities.

This inefficient use of resources can be improved by:

Bringing together data from a variety of sources on to a single platform

Developing a single view of the child, household and family

As a result, identify those who qualify for funding and help those in need.

Benefits and Deliverables

The main benefits of the Supporting Families Data Platform include:

Better targeting, throughput and outcomes evidencing –
- Improved identification of families who meet the criteria, which then drives greater funding
- Improved assurance and confidence that identified families are genuinely eligible for support
- Potential for £1,800 in additional funding per additional family identified per month.

Redistribute resources from manual data processing activities to deliver analytics or more impactful work

Reduced process risk by reducing potential for error, data security, or single points of failure

Improved data quality and ability to develop and implement tech solutions for wider use cases based on a scalable platform

Better ability to demonstrate regulatory compliance

Included in the Supporting Families solution is an Azure Landing Zone and Modern Data Analytics Platform (Data Lake and/or Data Warehouse), along with the ETL pipelines to ingest the necessary data. From here, a Power BI solution with 5 reports will be delivered, each bespoke to your needs, with supporting documentation for the full solution. Support is important to us, so you’ll receive a set number of user training days for skills transfer, as well as the option for a Managed Service or Support contract.

“A single source for children and young persons’ information linking across multiple systems will be a real game changer. It will give us the capability to join up our disconnected data, develop holistic insights and drive collaboration across our teams. Simpson Associates bring the Azure Synapse technical expertise and Local Government knowledge from working with other local councils, with the collaborative approach that made them the right fit for our project and team.”
Harriet Wakeling, Head of Data & Intelligence, Suffolk County Council

Why Simpson Associates

Simpson Associates are a Data Analytics Consultancy and Managed Data Services provider who specialise in supporting local authorities to address their critical service delivery and citizen objectives. They do this through trusted data and insights solutions, and their capabilities range from Strategy and Consultancy, to Data Quality, to Data Platform and Single View of Citizen. With over 30 years in data, Simpsons offer vast experience and a wealth of knowledge, combined with their extensive partner network. They are a Microsoft Solutions Partner in Data & AI, Infrastructure and Digital & App Innovation, and hold the Advanced Specialisation for Analytics on Azure.

Next Steps

To learn more about our Supporting Families Data Platform solution and how it can benefit your council, contact us today.

Book your consultation today.