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Learning From the Sector: How Wigan and South Cambridgeshire Are Setting New Standards in Data‑Driven Support

by Mevish Khalid & Andrew Humphreys, Published 29 January 2026

At SAVVI, we remain committed to one core principle: improving outcomes for vulnerable people through the responsible and effective reuse of data. While SAVVI will always be fundamentally a standards‑led initiative, the real value of those standards emerges only when they are applied in practice. That’s why we are continually gathering and sharing learning from across the local government sector, showcasing real examples of what works, why it works, and how it can be repeated.

We are excited to highlight two powerful learning examples from Wigan Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council. Each demonstrates how data-driven approaches can uncover need, strengthen resilience, and ultimately improve lives.

Wigan Council: Data-driven support for vulnerable residents

Wigan Council has achieved great success in ensuring local residents are able to claim the welfare benefits they are entitled to. This success was enabled by an intelligent use and integration of data to find many residents who were previously slipping through the net of the council’s support provision.

The council’s Income Maximisation team commissioned a project to produce prioritised lists of residents and households who were at risk of financial distress using a range of internal data sources for outbound welfare uptake campaigns. Calls and other contacts were welcomed by many residents who, between October 2023 and April 2025 were supported to make 7,276 successful new claims for welfare benefits with a combined value of over £9m per year, with households gaining up to £20,000 additional income per year.

After receiving support from the Income Maximisation team, one resident said:

“Thank you so much for your amazing help and support—the results have been totally life-changing.”

Wigan Council’s achievement shows the value of taking a data-driven approach to refer residents to the services they need and how this can deliver transformative outcomes.

You can read the full learning example here:

https://coda.io/@savvi/welcome/wigan-council-benefits-maximisation-317⁠

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South Cambridgeshire: Using Insight to Reach Residents Missing Out on Support

South Cambridgeshire District Council has demonstrated the power of using insight-led approaches to tackle financial vulnerability. By leveraging the LIFT platform, provided by Policy in Practice, to pinpoint residents who may be missing out on benefits or financial assistance, the council has delivered targeted community events that bring support directly to those who need it most.

The results have been striking. Through just four outreach events, the council engaged more than two hundred residents, delivered immediate financial support and supported residents to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional benefits via 1,000 successful new claims, adding up to many millions of pounds of extra income over their lives. Beyond the numbers, this initiative underscores a deeper principle: that good data, used ethically, can restore dignity, empower households, and improve long-term financial security.

South Cambridgeshire’s work offers a compelling example of how data intelligence, when combined with local partnership and face-to-face engagement, can transform outcomes at scale.

You can read the full learning example here:

https://coda.io/@savvi/welcome/addressing-poverty-in-south-cambridgeshire-district-council-318⁠

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Why These Stories Matter for SAVVI

Both learning examples reinforce the importance of shared knowledge across the sector. They show how councils can:

Turn standards and models into practical, repeatable solutions

Improve outcomes through ethical data reuse

Build stronger, more resilient services that meet people where they are

These real-world examples directly influence the evolution of the SAVVI standards and enrich the SAVVI Playbook ensuring that our guidance remains grounded in sector-led innovation. We’ve already started to build this learning into our first SAVVI Blueprint for Financial Hardship, which we will be publishing soon (read more

here⁠

If you are working on a project that uses data to find, assess, or support vulnerable people, we would love to learn from and feature your work. Sharing learning helps strengthen sector-wide practice and accelerates progress for everyone.

Get in touch at

info@savviuk.org⁠

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