. At the start of the pandemic, Wigan Council rapidly improved the use of its data to identify and support those in need, developing the necessary data sharing arrangements, expressed in its

COVID-19 Outbreak Control Plan⁠

. The legacy of this work has created a firm foundation for Wigan to adopt the SAVVI approach to vulnerability, not just to fulfil its responsibilities under the Civil Contingencies Act, but for a range of citizen vulnerabilities that align with its priorities as a local authority.

Wigan Council - Vulnerable Residents and Civil Contingencies

Wigan Council is highly committed to addressing vulnerabilities among its citizens and has developed a data store as a single repository for addressing population vulnerability themes. Wigan has also developed data sharing arrangements as enablers to fulfilling its statutory responsibilities, such as those governed by the Civil Contingencies Act.

Having discovered the benefits of ethical and transparent use of shared data to support vulnerable people during the acute phase of the pandemic, Wigan now aspires to expand its use of shared data across a range of vulnerabilities, including the NHS shielding list follow-up, domestic abuse and civil contingencies, among others.

The SAVVI project with Wigan Council will initially focus on documenting the council’s use of shared data in fulfilling its responsibilities under the civil contingencies act and expressing this in terms of the SAVVI model process, IG framework and data standards.This will enable the development of relevant items for the SAVVI Catalogue, help to improve the SAVVI data standards and model process and help identify areas where Wigan Council can further improve its data sharing approach.

Why the SAVVI Approach for Wigan

SAVVI has been designed as a scalable approach to finding and supporting vulnerable individuals and households that councils and their partners can reuse over several areas of work to address different vulnerabilities. This suits Wigan because, having reaped the benefits of a robust approach to using shared data during the first stage of the pandemic, it is now keen to implement the approach it has developed across other vulnerability themes and the extensible design of the SAVVI data standards enables this repeatability.

Wigan Council is also keen to share the excellent work it has done, such as on Civil Contingencies, with other councils who might benefit from adopting its approach and the SAVVI catalogue provides an ideal platform for sharing this good practice.

What Wigan Council is Saying

“We have been working on our Civil Contingencies data project for a while now and the team are making huge leaps towards ensuring we can give our most vulnerable residents the best service possible in the event of an emergency or incident. Working with SAVVI will ensure that we not only follow good practice throughout this project but it also gives us a platform to enable us to share our great work further" - Gemma Bathurst-Whittle, Service Manager - Strategy and Intelligence

The Future of the Partnership/ What we Expect to Achieve

The aim of the SAVVI/Wigan Council partnership during phase 3 is to express Wigan Council’s existing work under the Civil Contingencies Act in ways that are compatible with the SAVVI process, data standards and IG framework to enable:

A repeatable approach to addressing vulnerability by using shared data to find and support vulnerable people and households across the council’s operations, and;

A technical format through which Wigan can share its good practice with other councils.

Find Out More:

We work in the open and welcome your interest in SAVVI. If you are interested in keeping up with SAVVI projects please sign up to the

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how to get involved⁠