Fwd: [spno-data] FYI - Setting the Standard: Data sharing and standards in the voluntary sector (Lasa Knowledgebase)

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

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From: Ted Hildebrandt <[hidden email]>
Date: Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 3:00 PM
Subject: [spno-data] FYI - Setting the Standard: Data sharing and standards in the voluntary sector (Lasa Knowledgebase)
To: "[hidden email]" <[hidden email]>
Cc: "[hidden email]" <[hidden email]>

 

http://www.icthubknowledgebase.org.uk/datastandards

Setting the Standard: Data sharing and standards in the voluntary sector

By Sarah Parker, Lamplight Database Systems

“'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said... 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'” (Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll)

When we talk about impact, outcomes, outputs and demographics, we rely on the words and categories we use meaning the same to each of us. Yet sometimes they are different enough to cause real difficulties in communication. These difficulties are being addressed but this needs to go further and requires significant levels of co-operation to overcome.

Assessing impact in the sector

Data-sharing is becoming increasingly important for charities and voluntary organisations. It's not new: the sector has always produced and shared various performance data with funders and others (“this year we helped over 1300 people do...”). But increasingly organisations want to look at the work they are doing and assess their impact against others within the same sector. In some cases they want to be able to open their data up, making it freely available on the internet for other organisations to use and learn from. (For more on open data see the knowledgebase article Opening Up To Open Data).

In other cases organisations want to band together in consortia to better deliver the services they provide and strengthen their case to funders and commissioners. Data standards are essential for successful data-sharing in consortia. Organisations must take the disparate sets of data they collect as individual organisations – or even projects within a single organisation – and standardise the terminology and categories they use. They must agree on what data is important and what compromises have to be made. They must define the common standards which will guide the work they do and the monitoring they undertake.

Types of data standard

It's worth distinguishing two types of standard which need to be developed in these cases: a Client Standard Data Format and a Reporting Standard Data Format.

Client Standard Data Format

A Client Standard Data Format (CSDF) is a consistent client-level data-set. What demographic categories are relevant and how are they sub-divided? For infrastructure organisations, what is the set of 'organisational types'? What is the range of presenting needs being captured? What outcomes are being measured and how? How is work or events being recorded and broken down? What data collection methods will they use and so on?

Organisations can approach these questions in isolation and produce their own definitions. However, there are also numerous organisations indirectly addressing CSDFs. (e.g. NCVO's Value in Infrastructure Programme, Triangle Consulting's Outcomes Star and New Philanthropy Capital's Well-Being Measures. In using such broader, standardised tools, or sharing the tools they develop themselves, organisations can begin to extend their definitions from their own work into the sector more generally.

Reporting Standard Data Format

The second set of standards is a Reporting Standard Data Format (RSDF). This would specify some common statistics that are frequently reported. So, such a standard might define a 'menu' of key performance indicators, for example 'number of people supported in a month' or 'the average rate of change for outcomes measures', and organisations would choose from the menu as they need.

Once the content of the reports is specified there then needs to be a file format which is accepted as the standard format for import and export of such information. This will again facilitate the sharing of data. So, for example, data should be produced in machine readable-formats – not pdf or word processed tables.

In both cases such standards, while serving their purpose at consortia level, will only fulfil their potential if they go on to apply across the voluntary sector as a whole.

The way forward

The development of standards as a process arising from the sharing of standards between organisations has some parallels with the development of web standards. Individuals and groups of organisations developed code to publish information to the world wide web. However, like the old saying that ‘the great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from’, the danger is that “standards” will proliferate and the situation is made worse.

To solve this problem internet developers and software companies formed a membership organisation to set and agree standards. Corporations which might not otherwise seem obvious allies (Apple and Microsoft for example) co-operate to work on these standards. This means that web pages can be viewed by any browser rather than dedicated browsers for different applications. A similar approach would seem a natural route for the voluntary sector.

However, reporting and monitoring requirements do not just arise within voluntary organisations themselves. In addition to their own internal monitoring, funding bodies, charitable trusts and government all impose their own requirements. These requirements can be incompatible with each other and frequently multiply the work load of the organisations they fund. Duplicate data entry and running similar but sufficiently different quantitative reports to satisfy different funders can be a huge drain on time and resources. Any data standards therefore need to be developed with the central – but not exclusive – involvement of government and funders.

Suppliers of systems designed to capture and analyse such data will also need to be involved to ensure that software solutions are capable of keeping pace with, and informing, the development of such standards.

The benefits

The benefits of developing a set of data standards go beyond the learning and accountability benefits of data-sharing. The frustrating duplication of labour and inefficiency of running multiple systems and reports for multiple funders would be reduced, or even eliminated, saving a vast amount of money.

Moreover, the notion of data ownership becomes more meaningful. Organisations could transmit, share or move information between systems without the costs of data migration that can be involved.

The practice and uses of data-sharing will inevitably become more widespread and appreciated. Consortia will proliferate and the expectations on them to deliver more detailed and wide-ranging reports will increase. Data standards are not useful tools to facilitate that, they are essential. They are the dictionary that makes meaningful conversation possible.

About the author

Sarah Parker, Lamplight Database Systems

Sarah is Managing Director of Lamplight Database Systems. Lamplight works with organisations nationwide and across the sector, and provides a flexible, low-cost case management database system.

 

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