Data and Public Services Toolkit
We produce free tools and guides to help you to manage, publish and use data
This toolkit is designed to help people designing and delivering public services to overcome barriers to using data effectively.
We all rely on public services – from bin collections and road maintenance to schools and libraries. Local authorities provide essential citizen services but face the challenges of growing demand and limited resources.
Using data well in public services can help streamline processes, improve access to information for citizens, and enable innovators.
At the ODI, we have worked with local authorities across the UK to find and showcase data-enabled innovation in local public services.
We found that local authorities face consistent challenges when trying to use data – from a lack of clarity about what data is available or evidence of the value, to concerns over the ethical implications of using data.
This toolkit aims to help people designing and delivering public services overcome these barriers. The tools are designed to be used collaboratively by all involved in services, not just people with technical skills.
Use the tools
The Data and Public Services Business Case Canvas helps you to develop a business case for data-enabled public services. Advocate for the use of open data in your services by using this tool to create a business case that demonstrates how data can help deliver your organisational objectives and meet user needs in an innovative way.
The Data Ethics Canvas helps you to identify potential ethical issues associated with a data project or activity. Use this to ensure that ethical – and legal – use of data is considered from the very beginning of your project, and throughout. It can feed into your business case for using data, or be used on its own.
Our guide to Data Ecosystem Mapping helps to identify and plan the technical and organisational relationships needed to deliver a service. Use this guide to bring different stakeholders together to understand the flow of value through your data ecosystem. This can inform your business case, and be a useful tool on its own for project planning and delivery.
As part of the ODI’s Scaling data innovation project, we are exploring how to help local data-enabled projects scale up or scale out.
Checklist: How to design to scale sets out barriers for scaling with data, and a checklist of things to consider in overcoming them.
Our case studies of shared and open data being used to create or improve public services – they demonstrate the value of data in public service delivery, and benchmark what is required to make them.
How to use the toolkit
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Get help with using the toolkit
Do you work in public service delivery? Our full Data and Public Services Toolkit could help you to plan and deliver new services using data. Please share your details below if you think you need some help or support with using it.
The Data and Public Services Toolkit was created by the Open Data Institute, as part of its innovation programme, funded by Innovate UK.
