It is important to note that data tools that bring together currently fragmented early years data sets at an area level are a starting point for councils and organisations to improve their use of data to support children and families. But these types of data tools are not silver bullets. Early years data is often incomplete, of poor quality or missing crucial information on families’ views or holistic needs. Without early years data linked across settings and services at the level of the individual, we won’t be able to answer questions such as ‘Are children in an area that are not attending childcare the same children with the lowest outcomes?’ Without any representation of children and family voices in the analysis of locally held early years data, questions like ‘How do families feel about local provision, its availability, quality and suitability for their children?’ and, ‘Where do families think services are not meeting needs?’ will remain partially or wholly unanswered.
Some caution should therefore be taken when using aggregated early years data and data tools built using this data in the absence of other sources of information.
There is also a need for constant testing and iteration when knowledge from early years data is used to inform change. Has this knowledge actually improved what we want it to improve? Can the tool be further developed to include additional or more up-to-date data that provides another piece of the puzzle? Such questions should be asked at all stages of the development of a data tool: in the first co-design workshops, in the development phase, after deployment and during subsequent developments.
Decisions made in the early years should therefore be data-informed not data-driven.
What do our findings and reflections mean for other local authorities?
Early years data tools, such as the one being developed as a result of this project, present huge opportunities for other local authorities.
Some areas are already on this journey. In Scotland, The Promise is Doing Data Differently – thinking of new ways to join up data in order to provide a more complete picture of children’s journeys and experiences through care services. Whilst they are working with data from central government, care providers, charities and other key organisations in the system, local authorities are particularly placed to better use their data to support care experienced children and their families. For example, South Ayrshire council are using learnings from work with The Promise to refine and improve their data sets, work more collaboratively across services and ultimately provide more holistic, child-centred support to children and young people throughout South Ayrshire.
If councils and local providers took a similar approach to their early years data, and shared and joined up their data via early years data tools, they too could harness the power of their locally held data to better support the most vulnerable early years children and their families. Whether there is a need to better understand need, outcomes or contexts in which families live, data is a crucial and under-utilised starting point.
