Surrey County Council Win Certificate Of Excellence

We have awarded five Certificates of Excellence since the inception of the scheme, with the first five given at our Local Government Transformation conference last November. We will recap two winners in each issue of Transform, starting this issue with Insight Bristol and Surrey County Council.

Surrey County Council (SCC)

Surrey County Council (SCC) has partnered with the University of Surrey through a doctoral project to develop a tool capable of supporting commissioning decisions around the organisation's provision for Looked After Children (LAC) and Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) children.

The tool, namely a simulated version of SCC’s LAC and SEND placement system based on quantitative and qualitative data from agencies and users, will be developed to enable commissioners to test various “what-if” scenarios and observe the likely effect of a proposed change, or set of changes, on the system as a whole. The overall aim is to identify potential areas for system improvement, both in terms of outcomes for children and value for money.

System mapping and modelling is a methodological approach which is not usually adopted by local authorities, both because of issues of capacity and of data maturity, especially in large authorities like Surrey. SCC is at the forefront of innovation in this sense, having developed its data maturity through the adoption and the efficient use of systems like the software Tableau, and therefore being in a position to support the quantitative side of system modelling with data from various services.

Also, simulations are more frequently adopted in the context of the development of national policy, especially with regard to environmental rather than social policy. SCC believes new standards of work might well be developed out of its approach.

A further part of the attractiveness of the project lies in its ability to increase SCC's capacity to apply modelling and simulation to other areas in the future, as it will provide state-of-the-art knowledge of modelling approaches that can be used as a new platform for further transformation. At the end of the project, SCC expects to have made significant progress in terms of its outcomes for children and its financial sustainability.

The project officially started at the beginning of October 2018 and is currently in its earliest stage of development. The exact scope and focus of the work over the three-year period will be guided by the SCC leadership. Nevertheless, the project is designed to produce actionable insights long before its deadline.

Sara Dicerto, Senior Commissioning Officer - Analysis, Surrey County Council, said: “The Analytics Hub is delighted to have been awarded the Certificate of Excellence. We believe this is a great recognition both for a very new team at Surrey County Council and for the role analytics and research can play in the improvement and transformation of local authority services.”

To apply for a Certificate of Excellence, visit our website: https://www.iese.org.uk/ certificate-of-excellence