. At each phase in the project we need to know the ‘type’ of IG activity and assets that should be carried. In this workshop, when asked about blocks and barriers to using data to identify those individuals and households that were most vulnerable, there were consistent issues around the question of: how do we get agreement across partners on the legal basis for data sharing?
Some of the issues that arose were;
Partners did not agree on the legal basis for data sharing.
Partners did not agree on how data would be handled once shared
Different partnering organisations have varying levels of risk appetite for data sharing
Different organisations have different interpretations of the legal gateways for sharing data
Different organisations have different definitions of vulnerability, leading to variation on the basis of the purpose for sharing data
There is a lack of consistency regarding how we ask for data to be shared
The process of all local authorities individually ‘doing’ data sharing with partner organisations and with Government is inefficient because we are all doing it differently
IG is often perceived as a blocker rather than an enabler of information sharing
In response to these issues, SAVVI pulled together an IG workshop to look specifically at how we could build an IG framework to address our approach to vulnerability data. Hosted by iStandUK and facilitated by iNetwork, the following organisations took part in the workshop: DWP, ICO, Cabinet Office, MHCLG, NHS, UKCGC, GMCA, North Yorkshire County Council, Bolton Council, Huntingdonshire County Council, Information Sharing Gateway, DAPIAN, and the LGA.
Purpose
SAVVI has identified a number of ways it can help with addressing some of the identified IG issues. In response to getting agreement across partners on the legal basis for data sharing, SAVVI has defined the steps that partners should go through to establish data sharing, particularly for secondary use of data.
The project has standardised the terminology and definitions of common vulnerability scenarios and can also help by enabling IG outputs to be shared so that others can see how partnerships have succeeded. In terms of having different definitions of vulnerability, the SAVVI project has helped by starting a register of definitions of vulnerabilities which can be used as the ‘purpose’ of data sharing.
The SAVVI project is keen to support the standardising of templates across government to make data requests as uniform, simple and efficient as possible. Some of the inefficiencies across our sector nationally are created by councils and partners needing to feed the IG process again and again.
The purpose of this group is to propose an Information Governance framework when tackling vulnerability. During phase two of the project we asked our case study partners Huntingdonshire District council and North Yorkshire County Council to apply the SAVVI IG Framework to their respective vulnerability projects and were keen to test the SAVVI IG framework. The purpose of this was to prove that it clearly supports public sector organisations to handle vulnerability data, and to make good decisions about such data
The SAVVI SIQGA Working Group continues to be the gatekeeper for SAVVI catalogue content, and will continue to update the IG guidance based on the feedback from the session.
Governance
The output from all the workshops, discussions, and a little ‘light’ reading of the ICO Guide to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and various other codes of practice, is the first iteration of the
. This IG framework defines and recommends the steps that partners should go through to establish data sharing, particularly for secondary use of data, so that information is handled legally and ethically.
We have assembled a working group of public sector information governance practitioners to help us to quality assure the outputs and propositions from the case studies. The SAVVI Information Governance Quality Assurance (SIGQA) working group has been established and is made up of a group of local public sector IG practitioners who can review propositions for the use, and re-use of data within the SAVVI process. An inaugural meeting was held on 31 March 2021 and the group went through the terms of reference for the group, and discussed how the working group will function. Since the SIGQA group has changed it’s name to the SAVVI Data Enablers Group.
The role of the group:
Acts as an expert guidance group to provide support and guidance for the Information Governance lead(s) within the SAVVI Project
Provides a Quality Assurance role for the IG outputs from the SAVVI project
Acts as a critical friend of the SAVVI project in IG related matters
Champions the work of SAVVI among professionals from local authority and partner organisations, working in information governance, information management and information analytics related roles.
We are pleased to announce the following as members of SAVVI Data Enabler Group:
David Willis, Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System
Cheryl Boland, Senior Information Management Officer, St Helens Council
Peter Wilson, Information Governance Lead, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA Legal)
Debbie McCarron, Data Compliance Manager, Salford Council
Emily Griffiths, Information Governance Manager, University of Manchester
Jason Geldard- Phillips, Data Governance Manager, North Yorkshire County Council
You can view the SAVVI Terms of Reference Below;
SAVVI Data Enablers Group - Terms of Reference.pdf